In yesterday’s Austin American Statesman, Chuck Lindell wrote an article describing a lawsuit filed against former Texas Supreme Court Justice Tom Phillips.  The lawsuit alleges that Phillips and his wife allowed a party to go on at their home where minors were served alcohol and that one of the minors was killed in a one-car wreck on the way home from the party.

Because Texas football season — and hundreds of game-watching parties — starts tomorrow, the question of “When can a person be sued for providing alcohol to others?” is timely.

And there are generally two types of cases.  The type of case that is involved in the Phillips case (and would be involved in most game-watching cases) is described as “social host” liability because the cases seek to hold private individuals liable for providing alcohol to their social guests.  These types of cases are tough.  In most instances, a social host will not be liable for providing alcohol to a person who later causes an accident.

There are two exceptions to this general rule.  The first, as in the Phillips case, involves minors.   Adults (as long as they’re not the minor’s parents or guardian) can be liable for damages if they knowingly provide alcohol to the minor or allowed the minor to be served alcohol on premises the adults own or lease.  (You can read the full statute here.)

The second exception is more of a “maybe” exception because the law isn’t as settled.  But injured persons may have a claim against social hosts if the social hosts take charge of a person and then are negligent in the way that they take charge of someone.  The best example is a host who takes a driver’s keys because the driver is too drunk to drive, but then decides to put the driver in the car and let the drunk drive off.   As you might suspect, these situations are rare.

The second category of cases are called dram shop cases, and they involve claims agains commercial providers of alcohol, such as restaurants and bars.   These entites may be liable for damages caused by the drunk driver when they serve alcohol to a person when it is apparent that the person was intoxicated to the extent that he presented a clear danger to himself or others.  These are the most common cases against providers of alcohol.  There are a number of special details, and I may discuss those in a post next week.

(Image courtesy of vizzual.com on flickr)

Those of you that follow my blog know that I’m rarely excited about what goes on in the legislature. But the 2007 legislative session brought one great change. Following a tragic 2006 school bus crash, the legislature mandated that all school buses purchased after September 1, 2010 must have lap and shoulder belts to protect our kids.

That law was obviously slated to go into effect yesterday.  But now, the Texas Education Agency has slashed funding for the program, threatening its effect.  I’ve written a lot about school bus safety (and charter bus safety), and it really upsets me that the TEA is threatening the enforcement of this critically important legislation.

KXAN news reporter Josh Hinkle had a wonderful story about the issue last night, and he’s continued  the good work in his blog, where he summarized the Texas Transportation Institute’s study on the implementation of the bill.  For any of you interested in this, I urge you to read his blog and do what you can to help protect our kids.

His story is below:

Back to the property damage video series today.  Today I answer the question, “After a car wreck, am I entitled to compensation for the reduced value of my car?”  (And just a little disclaimer: all of these are based on Texas law.  If you’re out of state, talk to a lawyer in your own state.  If you don’t know anyone, feel free to give me a call, and I’ll try to get you a recommendation for someone in your area.)

 If my car is involved in an accident and it is repaired, am I entitled to compensation for the reduced value of my car?

 And the answer, if you’re making a claim against another driver, is “yes.”

 And we call those claims diminished value claims. The problem is trying to determine the diminished value of your car.

In the past, we’ve had to go to dealers or used car lots and try to get opinions from workers there. But now there are a number of companies that are sprouting up that can give you an estimate of what your diminished value of your vehicle is for having been in a wreck.  They will need to know the details of your car: The make, model, what kind of car you have, the options that you had, how many miles etc.  They will also need to know the type of damage. But then they can give you an estimate that you can use to help negotiate any diminished value of your car.

If you want to know more about the companies discussed in the answer, feel free to call or email me, and I’ll pass along that information.