Bar Liability for Drunken Guests and Guests Who Assault Others

bars liable for drunk patrons who assault guests

Having a nice cool drink with friends at your neighborhood bar is great. What is not great is getting injured by some drunk individual at the bar. If you have suffered an injury in a bar, then you need to read this.

You have the right to be free from injury caused by the negligent or intentional acts of others. When you are on premises controlled by another person, this right continues. If you get injured on that person’s premises, the law may allow you to hold them liable. This is premises liability.

The Drunk Person is Also Liable

If you have been injured by an intoxicated person in a bar, you should know that your assailant is also liable. You can choose to sue them for causing you the injury and the law allows you to recover compensation from them.

Of course, this is assuming that you did not start the fight in the first place or agree to fight your assailant. If the assault was unprovoked, you can sue the perpetrator. However, it may make more sense to sue the bar, as well, if they failed to live up to their duties under the Texas premises liability law. Contact our Houston premises liability lawyers today.

I tried to break up a fight at a bar and I ended up with a head injury.
CONTACT A LAWYER NOW!

Proving the Bar’s Liability

Generally, the owner or occupier of any premises is expected to maintain them so as to ensure the safety of visitors. They have a duty to ensure that the environment is safe and that any situation likely to do you harm is taken care of.

In the case of a bar, this duty can extend to cleaning up spilled drinks quickly before someone slips on them and falls. It can also include making provisions for adequate security, especially if incidents have been known to happen on the premises.

If you are suing the establishment for the injury you suffered from an intoxicated guest at the bar, you would essentially need to show that the bar was negligent. You would need to prove that they failed to provide adequate measures to ensure that patrons like you do not get injured by drunk guests.

In order to prove this, though, you need to show the following.

  • That the bar owed you a duty: Claims against bars for assault by a drunk patron usually involve the bar’s security and alcohol service policies. The bar is expected to provide adequate security for all patrons. This is especially so if the normal crowd at the bar is young and boisterous. For alcohol service, the bar should not continue to serve drinks to intoxicated guests.
  • The bar breached its duty: If the bar has failed to put in place adequate security when it should have, the duty they owe has been breached. You can also show that the bar continued to serve drinks to your assailant even after they were clearly intoxicated.
  • You suffered an injury due to the breach: The injury you suffered must have been a result of the bar’s negligence.

Injured While in a Bar and Want to Take Legal Action?

Speak to a Houston Personal Injury Lawyer

If you or a family member was injured by an intoxicated guest in a bar, there are things you can do immediately to help protect your legal rights and strengthen the viability of an injury claim. Get this invaluable information by contacting the Houston personal injury attorneys at Fleming Law today.