Don't Fear Your Future

Bottom-Line-Up-Front: We gather factual information about the accident to build legal claims and protect legal rights. The Long Answer: If you haven't already, start with Part 1 ! Welcome back! Thank you for sticking with me on this longish journey. For this part I will go over the civil aspects of Katherine’s incident wherein she was hit by a drunk driver. 10. The Civil Case Here, we will make a couple assumptions: That Dram Shop Liability attaches to a single OLCC (Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission) outlet, That the at-fault driver had State Minimum Insurance coverage, That the at-fault driver had a second auto insurance policy, And that Katherine had a medium sized insurance policy. Based on these assumptions, we’ll break down the maximum possible coverage available to Katherine in this scenario. Dram Shop Liability Coverage Let’s start with Dram Shop. ORS 471.565 provides the statutory basis for a Dram Shop claim. In general terms, if a bar serves alcohol to a person who is visibly intoxicated, then they (the bar) are responsible for the actions of that person if the person goes out into the world and hurts someone. The theory here is that if the alcohol provider makes money by selling alcohol to people who consume it on-site then they have a financial incentive to just keep selling alcohol to people and keep making money. But, that creates an externalized problem because when those visibly intoxicated people head out into the world everyone else has to deal with the damage they cause. Dram Shop liability internalizes that external consequence of harm to others such that the alcohol provider has a reason not to sell alcohol to people who are visibly intoxicated and to keep their patrons from injuring other people. How is Dram Shop applied to a DUI crash? It is a pretty simple legal analysis here: (a) Did the OLCC outlet serve alcohol to this person? (b) Was the person visibly intoxicated when they were served? (c) If so, then the OLCC outlet is responsible for damage caused by the person who was served while visibly intoxicated. In our circumstance with Katherine, we are operating under the assumption that Dram shop liability attaches. In order to vest the claim within 180 days , Katherine (or her attorney) must send a notice of claim to the OLCC outlet such that they are aware of their potential liability. Because the damage done by the visibly intoxicated person can legally occur off the premises of the OLCC outlet, there is a reasonable likelihood that the bar does not even know that any damage was done by a visibly intoxicated patron. Thus, it is reasonably fair to require that a person making a claim notify the OLCC outlet that they intend to bring a claim such that the bar has a chance to save evidence and investigate for themselves what happened. One regular issue is figuring out if the drunk driver was served at a bar and if so, what bar they were served at. Here, the criminal investigation becomes valuable because there is at least a small likelihood that the police know which bar the person was at. In the alternative, once the criminal case is over, the drunk driver can likely be compelled via the court system (through a deposition ) to disclose where they were served alcohol and how much alcohol they consumed. These insurance policies are large policies, regularly having $1,000,000 in coverage available for the bar. This means that on the Dram shop claim alone, Katherine has access to $1,000,000 worth of liability coverage. The Drunk Driver’s State Minimum Policy As above, we are assuming that the drunk driver had a “State Minimum” policy . In Oregon, ORS 806.070 sets out the minimum required coverage for an insurance policy issued within the State. That statute requires that the policy provide at least $25,000 worth of bodily injury coverage . Here, because the insured person was drunk and Katherine was injured in the crash, there is a high likelihood that this minimum policy would be tendered (paid in full). The Drunk Driver’s Second Auto Policy We discussed briefly that the drunk driver had a second auto policy. You may be asking yourself how that could be? It is more common than you think. If the drunk driver was driving a car loaned to them by another person (say a partner or a friend or relative) and that person had their own auto insurance policy, then both the policy purchased by the drunk driver and the policy purchased to insure the car would cover this instance. For purposes of this blog let’s just assume that this was a state minimum policy and was also tendered to Katherine. Underinsured Motorist Claim from Katherine’s own Insurance Policy Once all claims from a third party (meaning against people who are at fault in one way or another) vantage point have been resolved there is at least one final place to find additional dollars. That is the UIM (Underinsured Motorist) claim that Katherine would have as a benefit of the auto insurance policy she purchased. In our hypothetical, Katherine has a “medium” sized policy by which I mean a $100,000 policy. This is insurance coverage that she purchased for herself. She could have bought the State minimum coverage, but higher limits are also available so long as an insurance company is willing to sell her that policy. Katherine would only have access to UIM coverage if: a) She has exhausted all third party sources of compensation, b) And the drunk driver is considered “Underinsured” which requires: i. Katherine gets the maximum compensation available under each of the third party policies, and ii. The at-fault driver does not have any substantial personal assets. What’s Katherine’s maximum possible coverage? On the assumption that the drunk driver’s behavior was bad and that Katherine was seriously (or permanently) injured, if she was able to recover all available insurance dollars in this hypothetical she would be able to get: $25,000 from the first auto insurance policy, $25,000 from the auto policy that insured the car, $1,000,000 from the OLCC outlet, and $100,000 from her own underinsured motorists coverage. All told that is $1,150,000 in available insurance coverage for this single incident. If You Made It This Far… Thank you for sticking with me on this journey. I hope it was helpful and that I answered the question of what a personal injury attorney does in a DUI car crash case. While the short answer is still “we gather factual information about the accident to build legal claims and protect legal rights,” I hope you can see that a lot of time, energy, and intellect goes into actually making that real. If you ever find yourself in Katherine’s situation, please call an attorney. I hope I have inspired confidence in you that at Hunking Law we are more than capable of dealing with this situation and maximizing your recovery. Hunking Law Is Are Here To Help If are in Oregon and need help after an accident, call (541) 486-5464 or reach out online to schedule a complementary consultation with one of our expert attorneys. We are here to help.

Hurt in a truck crash in Eugene, OR? Federal motor carrier regulations and driver log reviews can be key evidence in building a strong commercial trucking injury claim.