Legal Question in Personal Injury in Tennessee

In Many States Yes

Many states have what is called a Dramshop Act. This act provides you with a remedy if the bar does what you say they have done. In NH if a bar serves someone that they knew or should have known was intoxicated then the bar could be responsible for the injuries. The drunk person might recover and anyone who was hit by the drunk might recover. You are right in assuming that this varies from state to state. I am sorry but I do not know what TN does specifically

Responsibility of drinking establishment owners

Tennessee's legislature has taken great steps to make it VERY hard to recover from a bar owner who served booze to a drunk ready to head out on the road and who then runs someone down.The Statute at issue is TCA 57-10-101 and 57-10-102.In essence the law requires that the jury find that what the bar owner did was responsible for the injury BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT, and also that the drunk driver was under age 21 (AND that the bar owner KNEW it) or was clearly intoxicated when the alcohol was provided AND the drunk driver would not have had the wreck if not for the alcohol the defendant provided.Below is the text of the statute it deals with.

� 57-10-101. Legislative findings; proximate cause

The general assembly hereby finds and declares that the consumption of any alcoholic beverage or beer rather than the furnishing of any alcoholic beverage or beer is the proximate cause of injuries inflicted upon another by an intoxicated person.

� 57-10-102. Proximate cause; standard of proof

Notwithstanding the provisions of � 57-10-101, no judge or jury may pronounce a judgment awarding damages to or on behalf of any party who has suffered personal injury or death against any person who has sold any alcoholic beverage or beer, unless such jury of twelve (12) persons has first ascertained beyond a reasonable doubt that the sale by such person of the alcoholic beverage or beer was the proximate cause of the personal injury or death sustained and that such person:

(1) Sold the alcoholic beverage or beer to a person known to be under the age of twenty-one (21) years and such person caused the personal injury or death as the direct result of the consumption of the alcoholic beverage or beer so sold; or

(2) Sold the alcoholic beverage or beer to an obviously intoxicated person and such person caused the personal injury or death as the direct result of the consumption of the alcoholic beverage or beer so sold.