A drunk driver can cause serious injuries in seconds. After a crash, you may wonder how anyone can prove that a bar served too much alcohol. The answer often depends on evidence from the hours before the collision may help show whether a bar or other alcohol seller served someone who was already intoxicated
Evidence that can show overservice
Kentucky generally limits the liability of licensed alcohol sellers and servers for injuries caused by an intoxicated person. An exception may apply when a reasonable person under the same or similar circumstances should have known the person was already intoxicated when served. That makes evidence showing the person’s condition when they were served especially important.
Useful evidence may include:
- Witness statements: Bartenders, servers and other customers may remember slurred speech, trouble walking, loud behavior or other clear signs of intoxication.
- Security video: Bar cameras may show how the person acted before leaving. Video can also show how staff interacted with the customer.
- Receipts and sales records: These records can help establish what alcohol was purchased and when.
- Bar staff records: Employee schedules can help identify which workers served the customer.
- Police and medical records: Crash reports, field sobriety results, blood tests and medical records may help establish the driver’s condition after leaving the bar.
- Cellphone or location records: These records may show where the driver was before the crash and how long they stayed at a particular location to establish the timeline.
Together, these records may help establish what happened before the crash. No single piece of evidence may tell the whole story. Taken together, records, video and witness accounts can help show whether the driver appeared intoxicated and whether the bar continued serving them.
Why timing matters
Evidence must help connect the driver’s condition to what happened at the bar. A high alcohol level after a crash does not, by itself, prove which seller or server provided the alcohol or whether the driver was already intoxicated.
Evidence from before the crash can help fill that gap. Witnesses, video and purchase records may show what happened inside the bar and whether staff had reason to recognize that the person was already intoxicated.
