Irresponsible servers could face legal consequences

Beginning July 1, drinking establishments across the state must comply with the Responsible Beverage Service Training Program Act, a measure intended to reduce the number of drunk drivers on the roads. If they fail to properly train and certify their bartenders and other workers, the state’s bars, restaurants, pubs and others who serve alcoholic drinks could find themselves embroiled in litigation for over-serving patrons.

The Responsible Beverage Service Training Program Act, AB 1221, was originally scheduled to take effect August 31, 2021, but that date was pushed out in response to the COVID pandemic and its impact on the service industry. Now servers and managers who work at locations including restaurants, bars, tasting rooms (including off-sale locations), fast casual dining, stadiums and hotels must register with the state’s Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC). They must be trained, pass an exam, and be certified by July 1, 2022, or 60 days after their first date of employment.

Under the new law, the ABC created a Responsible Beverage Service (RBS) Training Program designed to ensure servers of alcohol and their managers are educated about the dangers of serving alcohol to minors, as well as over-serving alcohol to patrons. The training requirement will affect an estimated 56,000 ABC licensees with on-premises alcohol sales privileges.

Enforcement of the new requirement will commence on September 1, 2022. As of that date, all ABC-licensed establishments must ensure that their alcohol servers and managers have completed RBS Training and be certified. Records of employee certifications must be maintained by the establishments and are subject to inspection, upon request, by ABC. Businesses that fail to comply with the mandate can face disciplinary action, including a 10-day suspension.

What we don’t yet know is how the law and its requisite training will affect drunk drivers and those injured by them. The intent of legislators was clearly to stop bars and other drinking establishments from over-serving patrons and putting others at risk. In the past, these establishments would have had little reason to turn away business that was making them money. Now, servers should know that they could face serious legal consequences for pouring one drink too many, and they should turn off the tap.

Inebriated people rarely know when to stop drinking. The duty must therefore be on drinking establishments to ensure the safety of patrons and others by terminating service to those drinkers who exhibit signs of impairment. To make the picture more problematic, many drivers in California do not carry valid insurance. It is not a stretch to say that a large percentage of the people who drive while under the influence have no insurance coverage. They are the same people who, prior to the rollout of the new law, would likely have been over-served by drinking establishments.

Victims of drunk drivers, previously limited to claims against the drunk driver and, if they had coverage, that driver’s insurance carrier will now have another avenue for legal redress. This additional, or perhaps only, redress will now come via the potential liability of establishments that over-served patrons who then drove off and caused serious crashes. When a bar or restaurant had the opportunity and ability to stop the flow of alcohol but failed to do so, it should face legal consequences. Too many times, these establishments have over-served because their focus was on profits rather than safety.

For the bars, restaurants and other locations that now face potential liability, the decision should be an easy one. Ensure that all servers and managers are appropriately trained and implement measures that will prevent over-serving as much as possible. There will, of course, be challenges. A patron who orders drinks for others at his table may not be representative of the status of his buddies. The bartender may need to confirm the condition of all who will be served before filling the order.

The RBS training will now establish a “known or should have known” standard that will make it more difficult for bars to assert that they didn’t know. When a drinker has visited several establishments before getting behind the wheel, it may be more difficult to determine the point at which he should have been cut off, but this does not preclude a plaintiff from asserting a claim against at least one of those places. If someone was injured or killed because of a drunk driver, that should be enough to state a claim for irresponsible service.

The RBS training requirement should significantly increase awareness for both servers and their patrons. Drinking establishments should have greater appreciation of the problems associated with over-serving, and they should embrace their role in mitigating impairment and drunk driving. If they fail to do this, they will be subject to lawsuits and liability from plaintiffs who have been injured by drunk drivers.

In addition to ensuring that their staff are properly trained and supervised, drinking establishments can take steps to educate their patrons and the public about the responsibility they bear in protecting the public. They can create public service announcements to educate the public about the dangers of drinking too much, highlighting the responsibility they bear in protecting the public from drunk drivers.

The Responsible Server law should ultimately reduce the number of deaths and injuries caused by drunk drivers. It should also provide plaintiffs in such cases with a remedy that can go a long way toward making them whole, while holding all responsible parties accountable.