Jan 22, 2025
COLUMBIA, S.C. (WSPA) - A South Carolina bill concerning selling alcohol to people who appear intoxicated was discussed in front of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee Tuesday. If ratified, the Dram Shop bill would hold businesses and individuals responsible if alcohol is sold to someone who is intoxicated, and that person harms another person. Committee Chair, Senator Michael Johnson, sponsored the bill. According to Sen. Johnson, he wants to help individuals and businesses "I want to lower insurance premiums for companies and businesses and individuals in South Carolina," he said. "That is my goal and that should be everyone's goal because I think we can all agree liquor liability and certain liability policies are out of control." Attorney Kenneth Berger shared public testimony. He said he has several concerns about the technical language of the bill. Berger said before the bill is debated on the Senate floor, loopholes should be removed. He said it should be clear that businesses should be liable if they serve minors at all. "A certain number of drinks for an 18-year-old is that the same thing as the same number of drinks whose 25, 30 or 40 and that's why I leaned toward let's just draw a hard line on it and say just don't serve underaged people," Burger continued. "I just don't want to open that door." In addition to being liable for selling to minors, Senator Shane Massey said the servers should be liable for serving anyone who is visibly intoxicated. "I have a real problem with a server could be held responsible for someone else's injury when they didn't do something that contributed to that injury," Massey said. Berger suggested businesses require servers to complete an alcohol training course to ensure customers and businesses are behaving responsibly.
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