"What have y'all been up to tonight?" The Innocuous Question Your Servers Should Be Asking Article by Christian Stegmaier
Understanding the parameters of what constitutes the safe454 service of alcohol in South Carolina bars, restaurants, and clubs can be a tricky thing. That’s because South Carolina does not have Dram Shop laws (Program note: The General Assembly should really enact Dram Shop statutes). Instead, alcohol liability in the Palmetto State is a case law-created beast that intertwines criminal statues found in Title 61 with a negligence-based theory. Understanding the amalgamations created by the case law and developing training to account for it can be challenging for permit holders to say the least. The Law in South Carolina: “Knew or Should Have Known” To sum up, third party commercial alcohol liability in South Carolina is established if the plaintiff can demonstrate permit holder’s service to an intoxicated guest. Our case law holds a jury may infer intoxication at the time of service if a toxicologist retained by the plaintiff can show through either retrograde extrapolation or by counting drinks that the tortfeasor driver who allegedly caused injury to a third party possessed a BAC of .08 or above at the time of service. SCRLA.org 15
