ARE YOU LEGALLY LIABLE FOR SERVING ALCOHOL TO GUESTS?

ARE YOU LEGALLY LIABLE FOR SERVING ALCOHOL TO GUESTS?

What is your legal liability when you serve alcoholic beverages to your guests?

Illinois law provides that social hosts have no legal liability to persons to whom they serve alcohol, whether they are adults or minors. Nor do social hosts have any legal liability to persons injured by an intoxicated guest. This freedom from liability exists even if it can be proved that the host had some reason to believe that his or her guest was intoxicated or that an intoxicated guest might drive. Illinois courts have joined in the widely held theory that it is not blameworthy conduct to supply intoxicating liquor to an ordinary able-bodied adult. Rather, it is the consumption of alcohol, not the furnishing of the alcohol, that is the cause of any subsequent occurrence.

“Social hosts” include both private individuals and companies that hold parties or social events. If a company holds a holiday party for its employees or serves alcohol at a business meeting, it is not responsible to the employees or to third parties for any injuries that may result due to intoxication. Likewise, where friends or family gather in private homes, the hosts are not responsible for the drinking of other adults.

Anyone under 21 years of age commits a criminal offense if he or she attempts to purchase, purchases, consumes, possesses, or transports any alcohol, liquor, or malt or brewed beverage, and an adult who furnishes any assistance is also criminally liable. A person commits a crime by serving any alcohol to a minor. It is not necessary that the minor have been served an amount sufficient to intoxicate him or her. Any person who serves minors mildly alcoholic beverages marketed as nonalcoholic is criminally liable if the beverage contains more than 0.5% alcohol.

Liquor license holders and their employees, along with owners or lessors, such as tavern owners, are not treated the same as social hosts. Licensees and their employees must refrain from selling liquor to any visibly intoxicated individual. Where a liquor license holder is found responsible for serving an intoxicated customer, he or she can be held liable by anyone injured by the intoxicated customer’s negligence. Once the determination has been made that the liquor license holder knowingly served a patron who was intoxicated, the liquor license holder will be held liable regardless of actual fault.

An adult who pays for a hotel or motel room or any other facility, with the knowledge that the room or facility is to be used by persons under 21 for the unlawful consumption of alcoholic beverages, can be held liable as if he or she were a liquor license holder. However, Illinois does limit the amount of damages that the injured party may recover for personal injury in such an action. Under no circumstances is the liquor license holder or person who rents the hotel/motel room or facility liable to the intoxicated person.

© 2011 Joseph M. Lucas & Associates, L.L.C.