A drunk-driving crash in Charlotte, NC, that critically injured a young couple and killed their unborn child and the intoxicated driver spotlights a set of laws designed to prevent bars and restaurants from serving alcohol to intoxicated patrons.
A Charlotte jury this month returned a $1.7 million verdict against Eddie’s Place, finding that the restaurant was negligent in serving alcohol to a person it knew or should have known was intoxicated.
The couple had sued under North Carolina’s law that establishes the liability of establishments that serve alcohol to obviously intoxicated or underage people who subsequently cause death or injury to others in alcohol-related crashes. Similar laws, known as dram shop laws, exist in some form in all but seven states, but the laws vary widely.
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