Liquor Liability Insurance: Protect Your Restaurant or Bar from Irresponsible Drinkers

A broken bottle being used as a weapon by an intoxicated individual

You only need to stay up well into the small hours of the morning on a weekend to see them: zombies inebriated in the excitement of a Friday night out and causing harm to other people and their properties. We are talking about irresponsible drinkers, of course, and if you are a restaurant or bar owner, you better watch out. Their victims may find you responsible or complicit with their misdeeds and slap you with criminal and civil lawsuits.

How Liquor Liability Insurance Protects Your Business

One can think of countless different scenarios when contemplating the possibility of how intoxicated people can cause trouble to a business: 

  • A patron gets intoxicated in a bar, leaves in their car, and commits homicide by accidentally running into a pedestrian crossing the street.
  • A person gets intoxicated in a restaurant, drives home, and crashes into another person’s parked vehicle.
  • Two people get drunk in a catered party and get into a messy fight.

Ideally, in these scenarios, the people that should be sued for damages should be those who are directly involved in the unfortunate incidents. But since your business served the alcohol, the victims can also get you involved in the case. They can argue, for instance, that your establishment or business continued to serve the intoxicated person more alcohol even though it was already clear that they were no longer in condition to drink more. On the other hand, the drunk individual may also try to sue you in court. As a matter of fact, the mere act of trying to escort rowdy and inebriated patrons out to the exit sometimes results in assault and battery claims by these individuals.

Liquor liability insurance helps protect your business by covering liability damages for personal injuries and damage to property. It also helps pay for your legal defense fees. Remember that even if the liability suit is dropped and your business is cleared of charges, the litigation costs can still prove to be exorbitant. It’s always best to be covered by a liquor liability insurance, so check with your insurance provider to see if this is included in your existing general liability insurance. If not, make sure to get one today.

For more information about insurance policies for small and medium-sized enterprises, please call Quote Texas Insurance today at 844-402-4464.