Under Pennsylvania Law, The Dram Shop Law, 47 PS Section 4-493.1 makes it unlawful for any business to “sell, furnish, or give any liquor or malted or brewed beverage, or permit any liquor or malted or brewed beverage to be sold , furnished, or delivered to any visibly intoxicated person.”

In addition, the Statute Law and jurisprudence require that the attention of the visibly intoxicated person must be the cause of injury or damage. “Cause” to successfully sue a bar means there must be some cause and effect relationship between the drunk driver being notified and the cause of the injury. For example, when a bar serves someone who is visibly intoxicated and then the person gets in their car and hits another person 10 minutes later, there is likely a “cause” of damages to be able to sue the bar in a civil case and retrieve. The further back in time when the injury occurs, the less likely or clear the proof of cause is to sue a bar. It need not be the only cause, but rather “one” cause which, without it, would make the injury/damage less likely to occur.

Therefore, in a situation where a person leaves a bar and then injures himself or someone else, the bar may be liable for civil damages. Damages may include: bodily injury, pain and suffering, lost wages, medical bills, a spouse’s consortium claim, loss of enjoyment of life, loss of future earnings.

The key question about whether you can successfully sue the bar for serving a drunk driver is being able to prove that the bar served the drunk driver while he was visibly intoxicated. This can be proven with direct evidence, such as eyewitnesses at the bar (for example: other bosses, people the drunk driver was with, bar employees, etc.). Sometimes this witness evidence is difficult to obtain because patrons were also drinking or loyal to the bar, and bartenders often side with the bar for obvious reasons. Another way to successfully sue a bar is through circumstantial evidence, which is allowed in Pennsylvania. Examples would be the results of the drunk driver’s blood alcohol test along with at least one fact or facts that would support visible intoxication, such as tripping, noisy behavior, slurred speech, etc., at or near the time the driver drunk driver was at the bar and served.