Here’s how SC lawmakers can keep more bars, restaurants that serve alcohol open | Opinion

A heartbreaking case involving a South Carolina bride killed hours after her wedding by an alleged drunken driver last year recently took a dramatic turn. Progressive auto insurance, Enterprise Rent-A-Car and three bars alleged to have wrongly served alcohol to the driver, settled a lawsuit that will pay the woman’s husband, who was injured in the crash, more than $800,000.

The development has rekindled the debate over liquor liability laws and the cost to popular bars of maintaining insurance policies designed to cover such tragedies.

But when carefully considered, there isn’t much to debate. The problem is not liability laws, which are necessary for aggrieved parties to pursue justice. The problem is the greed of many insurance companies.

Right now, bars, restaurants and venues that serve alcohol in South Carolina are being driven out of business by rising liquor liability insurance rates. In Piedmont, the Golden Grove Farm & Brew cited high liquor liability rates as the reason it was taking an indefinite hiatus from serving alcohol in February. In Greenville, liquor liability costs were a big reason Smiley’s Acoustic Cafe closed last year, while Piney Mountain Bike Lounge had to tear out its popular bike track to help pay alcohol insurance premiums.

South Carolina legislators must step in to protect these venues from insurance companies’ outrageous premiums.

Insurance companies are blaming attorneys for pushing them out of the market with “frivolous lawsuits,” but here’s the truth: Lawyers don’t decide how much you pay for liquor liability insurance premiums — insurance companies do. And while lawyers are forbidden from filing lawsuits that they don’t believe are legitimate, there is no cap on corporate greed.

Berkshire Hathaway, one of the insurance companies with the most earned premiums from liquor liability policies in the state, made $364.5 billion last year. Another insurer with a big piece of the market, Liberty Mutual, made $49.4 billion. Insurance companies are not hurting.

As a personal injury attorney, I can tell you this — it is difficult to build a successful lawsuit against a venue for overserving someone who later drives drunk. You must prove that the bartender knowingly served alcohol to an underage or intoxicated person. The first place that victims often look to for recovery is against the drunken driver.

Holding careless venues responsible is necessary when law enforcement patrols can only do so much to stop drunken driving. Hilton Head Island taxpayers paid more than $500,000 between 2013-2020 for sheriff’s office bar detail — mostly for extra patrol at the “Barmuda Triangle,” a district known for partying. Nevertheless, in 2021, a drunken driver caused a fatal crash after leaving the Triangle.

There is no doubt that liquor liability laws save lives. According to a study published in Traffic Injury Prevention in 2015, liquor liability laws are associated with “significantly reduced” alcohol-related car crash rates for underage drinkers. A 2011 study found “strong evidence” that liquor liability laws reduce alcohol-related harms, and a 1994 study found that these laws reduce “mortality rates from traffic accidents.”

South Carolina venue owners shouldn’t have to pay unreasonable and ever-rising liquor liability insurance premiums. Legislators should encourage insurers to use a sliding scale of rates, one that rewards responsible venue owners for exercising safe alcohol service practices. Insurance companies already do this in other types of policies, such as safe driver discounts for businesses whose drivers take traffic safety classes.

South Carolina representatives should also support legislation enforcing ignition interlock devices for those with drunken-driving convictions, who would have to pass a breathalyzer test before their car starts. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “ignition interlocks reduce driving while impaired (DWI) repeat offenses by about 70% while they are installed.”

Liquor liability insurance rates should be reasonable and reflect how well venue owners protect their customers by not overserving. State legislators can keep South Carolinians safer from drunken drivers without allowing insurance premiums to drive our bars out of business.

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