Liability for Halloween Drunk Driving Accidents
Posted Friday, October 29, 2021 by Chris Thayer
Halloween can be one of the most fun nights of the year. However, the fun often stops when the danger becomes real. Halloween parties and social events, many of which involve drinking, can make the streets a dangerous place to be. It is no surprise then, that the majority of fatal car accidents and fatal pedestrian collisions on Halloween involve at least one drunk driver. If you or a loved one was tragically injured by a drunk driver on Halloween, you have legal avenues available to you. In fact, you have the option to bring a personal injury lawsuit against the drunk driver and any other liable parties to recover for the harm that you suffered.
While nothing can keep the accident from happening, a personal injury lawsuit allows you to hold the reckless party accountable and aims to restore you to the position you would have been in financially had the accident never occurred. This includes compensation for medical care and treatment as well as pain and suffering. The information in this article is intended to be general, but if you would prefer to speak directly to an experienced Seattle personal injury attorney, you are welcome to contact Pivotal Law Group to schedule a consultation.
*Criminal Versus Civil Law* In order to succeed in bringing a personal injury lawsuit against someone, you must be able to establish that they were negligent in causing your harm. A person is negligent when they breach their duty of care. A driver breaches their duty of care when they break the law, as it puts all other drivers on the road at risk. For this reason, if a driver is drunk and causes an accident, they are automatically guilty of being negligent because they breached their duty of ordinary care by driving under the influence. It is important to understand that bringing a personal injury lawsuit does not limit or impact your ability to also file criminal charges. In fact, there can be some strategy to it. The criminal court has a much higher standard of proof than civil court where personal injury lawsuits are brought. In criminal court, charges must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt–or to near certainty–while in civil court claims must only be proven more likely than not. In other words, criminal court cases must be proven to 99% certainty while civil court cases must be proven to 51% certainty. This means that if you bring criminal charges and are successful, then you are almost guaranteed success in civil court.
*Schedule a Consultation With a Seattle Personal Injury Lawyer * If you or a loved one have been injured by a drunk driver in the Seattle, Bellevue, Kent, Renton, Burien, Mercer Island, Issaquah, or greater Washington State area, our experienced personal injury attorneys can help you hold them legally accountable as well as get you the maximum amount of compensation to which you are entitled. Contact Pivotal Law Group today to schedule a consultation to start taking your power back and moving forward with your life.