In a moment, a drunk driving accident can take many things from you: your car, your health, your ability to work, even a loved one or your own life. You should not have to suffer these losses because someone else chose to get behind the wheel while drunk. In California, a third of fatalities in traffic accidents are caused by drivers who were legally drunk at the time. More than a fifth of fatalities are caused by people whose blood alcohol is double the legal limit for driving. This small number of drivers have had a disproportional impact on people’s lives, and they should pay for what they’ve done. 

Criminal penalties exist to punish drunk drivers for their wrongdoing, but they don’t help your family in the aftermath of a drunk driving accident. Instead, a drunk driving accident lawsuit can get compensation for your injuries and losses. This can help you cope with the aftermath by allowing you to pay bills and make up for lost income. At Fisher & Talwar, we have helped many people get compensation after traffic accidents, including drunk driving accidents. We can help you. To learn how we can help, please call us today for a free consultation. The consultation is completely confidential, and there’s no obligation. Just ask us your questions, and then you can decide how you want to handle the situation.

What to Do After a Drunk Driving Accident

After a drunk driving accident, many of the steps you follow are the same as those you follow after a normal car accident. Following these steps can help preserve your right to compensation after your accident:

  1. Get medical help: If anyone has been seriously injured in the accident, it’s critical that you get them medical help as soon as possible. Call for an ambulance if there’s anyone who lost consciousness during the accident, can’t get up or move on their own, or is bleeding significantly. Don’t move injured people unless you are trained to do so, can do so safely, or the person is in imminent risk of further injury.
  2. Contact police: If you suspect that one or more of the drivers in an accident was driving drunk, then the incident is no longer just an accident; it’s a crime. It’s important to get the police involved as quickly as possible. Try to get them to the scene so that they can identify the drunk driver and deal with them. 
  3. Control what you say: When police arrive, they are going to ask questions of everyone on the scene. Respond to their questions with short, factual replies. Tell exactly what happened from your point of view, but don’t talk about your mental state or what you suspect was the mental state of the other drivers. You may say things that could limit your ability to get compensation later. 
  4. Exchange information with other drivers and witnesses: It’s important to get information from anyone and everyone who witnessed the accident. All the evidence you collect in support of your potential lawsuit can lead to increased compensation later. 
  5. Take pictures and sketch the accident: Photos and other evidence can also be crucial to your compensation later. Police are going to want to clear the accident scene quickly, so if you are able, it is important to get pictures before damaged cars and debris are taken away. Get pictures of skid marks, the damage to all vehicles, and injuries, as long as you can do it without interfering with first responders delivering medical care. You should also take reference pictures of the intersection, including the approach of all vehicles involved in the accident. Once you’ve taken pictures, try to make a sketch of what you remember of the accident as it occurred. Your memories will fade quickly, and a sketch can help you give accurate and consistent testimony.
  6. Contact your insurance company: Your insurance company will require notice of the accident if you hope to get compensation related to it. Typically, you have up to 72 hours to give this notice.
  7. Contact a drunk driving accident lawyer: If you want to pursue the compensation you are due because of the accident, you will need the help of a lawyer skilled in these types of cases. It is strongly recommended that you talk to a lawyer if:
    • You suspect a driver in the accident was drunk
    • You have high or ongoing medical bills related to the accident
    • There were multiple drivers involved in an accident
    • Your insurance company is saying it might not honor your claim
    • A driver is saying you are responsible for the accident
    • A commercial truck was involved in the accident
    • Another driver or their insurance company is offering you a settlement

Not everyone needs a lawyer after a car accident, but in most cases involving a drunk driver, you will benefit from having the assistance of a lawyer.

Criminal vs. Civil Drunk Driving Cases

Drunk driving is a crime in the State of California. When the state determines that someone has been driving drunk, it attempts to punish them, whether or not the drunk driver caused an accident. The punishments for drunk driving can include the suspension of a driver’s license, jail time, education classes, community service, and other penalties. It can even include hefty fines. However, none of these punishments are intended to help the victims of the drunk driver. The fines go to the State of California, not to the people the driver has hurt. 

If you want to get compensation for your injuries from the drunk driver, you need to file a lawsuit against them, which is known as a civil action. Civil cases have different evidence standards than criminal cases. Instead of the state looking to prove that a person committed the crime of drunk driving, you are trying to prove that their actions caused you harm, and that you deserve compensation for those harms. 

How a Lawyer Can Help If You’ve Been Hurt or Lost a Loved One

In the aftermath of a drunk driving accident, you are likely struggling to deal with the effects: high medical bills, diminished earnings, and the pain of your injuries and/or loss. 

Having the help of a drunk driving accident attorney can help you through this difficult time by:

  • Explaining your legal options
  • Anticipating the likelihood of future and ongoing expenses
  • Assembling documentation to tally your losses
  • Connecting your injuries to your accident
  • Demonstrating that the other driver(s) were negligent
  • Guiding you through the steps to get compensation
  • Helping you find ways to pay or hold bills until the case resolves

With this assistance, you will find that it is much easier to deal with the effects of the accident and get as close as possible to erasing the impacts of the accident. 

Who Is Liable in a Drunk Driving Accident

In a drunk driving accident, the drunk driver has the clearest liability. They committed a crime by getting behind the wheel when they were drunk. By doing so, they violated their duty to care for the safety of drivers, pedestrians, bicyclists, and others with whom they share the road. 

However, just because the drunk driver is liable, that doesn’t mean that other people aren’t liable. Liability might also extend to:

  • Other drivers, including sober drivers, even if they were killed in the accident
  • An employer, if the drunk driver was driving for work or got drunk at a work function
  • Bars or hosts who kept serving a driver after they were drunk
  • Manufacturer, retailer, or mechanic, when a defective or faulty vehicle contributed to an accident

Under California’s comparative liability laws, you are able to pursue compensation from everyone who contributed to your injuries to the degree that they are responsible. It also means that you can still sue even if you are partly responsible for the accident that caused your injuries. 

Comparative Liability in California

California follows what is known as a pure comparative liability system. This means that after an accident, each party to the accident is responsible for compensating those who were hurt according to how much the party was responsible for the accident. Consider a situation in which you were in an accident with two other drivers, and it was determined that all drivers were equally responsible: about 33% responsibility each. In this situation, each driver could pursue compensation from the other two drivers. However, each driver would only pay the amount they contributed to the accident, so no driver would be able to get compensation for more than ⅔ of their damages. 

This system allows people to seek compensation even if they are 99% responsible for their own injuries, though in that case, they would only be able to get compensation for 1% of their damages, which might mean it’s not worth pursuing compensation. 

When a driver is drunk, they are likely to be assigned a very large portion of the blame for an accident. Studies show that drunk drivers are between 4 and 12 times more likely to cause an accident, which means that a drunk driver might be assigned 80-90% of the responsibility or more from the beginning. Even if you feel you were partly responsible for an accident, it almost always makes sense to pursue compensation against a drunk driver. 

Dram Shop and Social Host Liability

Under California law, drunk drivers bear most of the responsibility for getting behind the wheel when they’re inebriated. However, sometimes you can also pursue compensation from the people who served them alcohol, contributing to the accident. 

As a general rule, bars (known as “dram shops” under the law) and social hosts are protected from liability for serving alcohol. The driver bears responsibility for knowing their limits and either stopping drinking before they reach them or getting a safe ride home if they’ve reached them. 

They are only exposed to liability when they continue serving alcohol to a person who is already visibly drunk. This can be hard to establish, but in some cases, it’s possible to assemble evidence showing that the bar or host should have cut a person off but failed to do so.

Drunk Driver Liability Waymo vs. Autopilot

What if you are involved in an accident with someone who is drunk while in a car that is partly or fully autonomous? Does that count as a drunk driving accident? It depends on whether the car is partly or fully autonomous. 

In the case of a partly autonomous car, such as a Tesla with autopilot or other cars with various safety driving aids, the driver is still required to remain in control of the car. If they were drunk behind the wheel, they still count as being a drunk driver. 

However, a drunk person taking a Waymo in cities where they’re allowed to operate, such as San Francisco and Los Angeles, is no different than a person taking a taxi with a human driver. They are expecting the vehicle to take care of all the driving, and their drunkenness will not affect the liability assigned in the accident.

In both cases, though, you might be able to pursue compensation from the car manufacturers for defects in their autonomous driving mechanisms. 

Statute of Limitations for Drunk Driving Lawsuits

Typically, you have two years to pursue compensation after a drunk driving accident. However, you should not wait to start pursuing your case. Evidence from any car accident can begin to vanish almost immediately, so it’s important to start your lawsuit as soon as possible so you can use the evidence to get all the compensation you are due. 

How Much Your Drunk Driving Accident Lawsuit Is Worth

Each drunk driving accident case is going to have particular details that will make it different from others. It’s impossible to say exactly how much one is worth without a consultation. However, in a drunk driving accident, you can pursue compensation for all related damages, including:

  • Medical bills
  • Ongoing treatment expenses
  • Prescription drugs
  • Medical equipment
  • Accommodations necessary since your accident, such as:
    • Wheelchair ramps
    • Additional help around the house
    • Modification to a vehicle
  • Lost wages and diminished earning capacity
  • Noneconomic damages, such as:
    • Scarring or disfigurement
    • Loss of enjoyment in life
    • Loss of companionship for a deceased family member

Because the drunk driver is largely responsible for the accident, you will also likely receive a high portion of these expenses. However, the amount of your recovery will still be limited by how much money and/or insurance coverage the drunk driver had. 

How to Choose the Best Lawyer for Your Drunk Driving Accident

There are many lawyers who will offer you help after your drunk driving accident. It can be hard to find the right one that has the best chance of getting great results for your family. Here are four questions that can help:

  • Will you handle my case personally? With many law firms, the lawyers with their names on the door don’t commit to handling your case personally. They hand it off to junior attorneys. At Fisher & Talwar, we never take more cases than we can handle personally – you can always count on getting our top lawyers on your case.
  • Have you had success with cases like mine? Always make sure that the lawyers you’re working with know how to handle a case like yours. At Fisher & Talwar, we have had many great successes with car accident cases, including individual cases with verdicts and settlements in the millions. We are happy to handle car accident cases with extra complexities like drunk driving or defective vehicle aspects.
  • Will you charge me a fee if you don’t win my case? You are already facing extra bills due to your accident – you don’t need a lawyer’s bills on top of them. At Fisher & Talwar, we handle drunk driving accident cases on a contingency basis – you don’t pay us unless we win. 
  • Are expenses included in your fee? Lawyers often treat expenses and fees differently. A lawyer might offer a lower fee but will expect you to pay their expenses. This can mean that you are paying significantly more for a lawyer than you initially expected, which can cut into the money that you hoped would pay your bills. In some cases, you might have to pay their expenses even if they don’t win your case. At Fisher & Talwar, our expenses are included in our fees – there’s never a last-minute surprise bill. Plus, we will never expect you to pay our expenses if we don’t win your case. 

Contact Us Today

If you’ve been hurt or lost a loved one in a drunk driving accident, we can help you get compensation from the driver or drivers who caused your injuries and losses. This can’t erase the damage, but it can make it easier to pay bills and take care of your family so you can have space to heal or grieve. Please contact Fisher & Talwar today for a free consultation about your case. We will answer all your questions, and there’s no cost or obligation.

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