When I first start working as a personal injury lawyer, I didn’t grasp how most “dram shop” lawsuits worked in practice. Most everyone agrees that, if a bar keeps serving a customer alcohol until they’re intoxicated, and the customer gets in a car accident and injures someone, then that other person should be able to sue both the bar customer and the bar. But what about the drunk driver? Why would a jury believe that the bar, and not the drunk driver, is responsible?

I thought about the answer as I read three separate stories of unsympathetic plaintiffs who played a role in their own injures, two at Walter Olson’s Overlawyered and one at Daniel Cummins’ Tort Talk.
Continue Reading Why Drunk Drivers File Lawsuits For Their Own Accidents