Alcohol poisoning is a serious and potentially fatal condition in which too much alcohol replaces the oxygen in the blood. It can occur from drinking too much alcohol too quickly. Alcohol poisoning can affect your body temperature, heart rate and breathing. In severe cases, alcohol poisoning can cause coma and death. In Texas, if a bartender or alcohol vendor overserves an obviously intoxicated person too much alcohol, the state’s dram shop law could hold the business responsible for related incidents and injuries, including alcohol poisoning. To learn more, get help from a Dallas dram shop liability attorney.

Is Dram Shop Only Related to Car Accidents?

Texas’ dram shop law, Alcohol Beverage Code Chapter 2, states that an alcohol provider could be liable for damages if it was apparent at the time of providing the alcoholic beverage that the recipient was obviously intoxicated to the point of posing a risk to him/herself or others, and if the intoxication of the recipient was the proximate cause of damages suffered. Although the most common use of the dram shop law is to prove alcohol vendor liability for a drunk driving accident, the statute can apply to many other alcohol-related accidents as well. The law does not specifically name auto accidents as the only incident with recovery available. It simply states that the vendor could be liable for damages suffered.

Does Dram Shop Cover Alcohol Poisoning, Slip and Fall or Wrongful Death?

Dram shop laws exist because those in positions to serve alcohol could effectively prevent drunk driving accidents, assaults and other alcohol-related incidents by cutting off the recipient. Holding alcohol vendors responsible for how much they serve could potentially help prevent overserving patrons, as well as the accidents they cause. The dram shop law in Texas can apply to any damages an intoxicated person causes, including assaulting someone else or causing a drunk driving accident. The intoxicated person, however, cannot use the dram shop law to hold the alcohol vendor liable for his or her own damages.

Although the dram shop law may not apply, a drunken individual could have a case based on negligence against the bar, restaurant or nightclub guilty of overserving him or her. Every establishment has a duty of care, or legal obligation, to reasonably look out for the safety of its patrons. This obligation can come with many specific duties, including a duty not to overserve obviously intoxicated patrons. If an employee of the establishment negligently overserves a person, and that person suffers injuries such as alcohol poisoning, a slip and fall accident or wrongful death, the victim or his or her family may have grounds for a negligence claim.

A negligence claim against a bar or nightclub for overserving must prove through a preponderance of evidence that the establishment owed the victim a duty of care, breached this duty by overserving the victim, and that this breach is what caused the victim’s damages. The victim may also have a claim based on premises liability if a dangerous property element caused the accident, such as beer-soaked floors or inadequate security. A claim can demand compensation for damages such as physical injuries, medical bills, property damage, emotional distress, lost wages and legal fees.

Can I File a Dram Shop Claim if Alcohol Was Served to a Minor?

Texas’ dram shop law also applies to the serving of alcohol to a minor (someone under the age of 18) in some situations. If the alcohol vendor was an adult 21 years of age or older and was not the intoxicated individual’s parent, guardian, spouse or someone keeping custody of the minor, the adult could be liable for the minor’s intoxication. The adult must have knowingly furnished the minor with alcohol or allowed someone else to serve the minor alcohol on a premises the adult owned. If someone served your underage child alcohol and he or she suffered alcohol poisoning, you may have a case against the bartender, establishment, individual or social host. Speak to an injury attorney about a potential lawsuit right away.

Summer is here, and kids are celebrating the end of the school year and packing up for camp. New friends, outdoor activities, and time spent away from home to encourage independence are among the many benefits of a summer at camp. Nationwide, there are 7,000 overnight camps and about 5,000 day camps in the U.S., attended by some 11 million campers, according to the American Camp Association (ACA).

As parents, you are trusting your children to the supervision of others when you send them off to camp. Hopefully, you’ve done your research and selected a camp with a great reputation and track record of many summers without incident. Nevertheless, accidents do happen at camp. Most are minor scrapes and cuts, but serious injuries and illnesses can occur. When they do, who is responsible?

The Camp’s Duty of Care to its Campers

In most cases, the camp has a duty to keep it’s campers reasonably safe, under the legal theory of premises liability. The camp’s grounds should be maintained free of hazards, and the activities should be age appropriate, not unduly dangerous, and well supervised. The camp owes a duty to its campers and their families to review its programs and facilities to minimize injury risks. When the owner, operator, or a staff member of the camp fails in its duty to create and maintain a safe environment, and a serious accident or injury occurs, a parent might successfully sue the camp for their child’s injuries.

Types of Injuries and Illnesses that Occur at Camp

• Communicable diseases: Kids sleep in fairly close quarters and as with any time youngsters come together in groups, germs get passed from one to another. Most common are respiratory infections and gastro-enteritis, “stomach flu.” Most of these are minor and pass within a few days. In the rare instance of a serious outbreak of a life-threatening disease, such as measles or meningitis, depending on the circumstances, the camp’s vaccination requirements, and how the first case was handled, it might be possible to prove negligence and hold the camp liable for the cost of medical care, pain and suffering, and any long-term damage to the child’s health.
• Slip, trip, and fall accidents: If a child slips or trips and falls because of some hazardous condition at the camp, the owners may be held liable for any injuries that occur, if it can be shown that they were negligent in maintaining the premises in a reasonably safe condition, and that they caused or allowed a hazardous condition to exist, under the legal theory of premises liability.
• Injuries resulting from the failure to use appropriate protective equipment: Team sports, horseback riding, and cycling are among the camp activities that require protective gear. If the camp either does not provide the gear or does not enforce its use, they may be held liable for your child’s injuries.
• Injuries resulting from lack of supervision: There’s no telling what kind of trouble kids can get into when left unsupervised. When you send your child to camp, you rely on the staff to provide appropriate supervision. It is the camp’s responsibility to provide it. The camp can be held liable for serious injuries or deaths (drowning, for example) brought about by lack of supervision of the campers.
• Inherently dangerous camp activities: Horseback riding, football, capture the flag, wilderness hiking, and other activities common at camp come with inherent dangers for kids who participate. You will usually be required to sign a release of liability form. If the camp has provided adequate training, supervision, and protective gear, they will probably not be held liable for a child’s injury in an activity with inherent danger. However, if they were lax in any of the above, you might have a case.
• Sexual or physical abuse of children due to failure of camp to screen staff: The camp is responsible for ensuring that the people they hire to supervise and guide the children are of good character. They should perform thorough background checks to determine if there any red flags that might indicate an applicant is not fit to be around children. Needless to say, a conviction for a violent crime, domestic abuse, or a sex offense should preclude hiring someone. If any sort of child physical or sexual abuse occurs at the hands of a staff member, the camp may be held liable for wrongful hiring and failure to properly investigate those who will care for the kids.

If Your Child’s Injury is More than a Minor One

Children are prone to injuries, and some types of injuries will inevitably occur at camp. The good news is that most camps have on-site healthcare providers and adhere to national camp standards requiring the presence of a licensed healthcare provider present around the clock to deal with most common illnesses and injuries as they occur.

Depending on the specific circumstances, the camp may or may not be held liable for serious injuries, depending on the specific situation in which the harm occurred. If your child suffered a serious injury or illness at a day or sleep-away camp that could have been prevented, talk to an experienced personal injury attorney to learn what legal options might be available.