Articles Tagged with Dram Shop Cases

When a drunk driver causes a life-changing crash, people naturally focus on the driver. But in many Massachusetts cases, the more important question becomes where the drinking happened, and whether a bar, restaurant, club, or event venue kept serving alcohol when it should have stopped. These are commonly called dram shop or liquor liability cases, and they can be the difference between a partial recovery and a meaningful one, especially when the drunk driver carries low insurance limits.

In 2026, successful dram shop claims are built less on outrage and more on evidence. Defense lawyers and insurers will almost always argue the same thing: Our staff didn’t know the patron was intoxicated. Your job is to prove the opposite using time-stamped records, credible witnesses, video, and a tight timeline that shows impairment was visible and service continued anyway.

What Massachusetts law is really about is plain English, serving an intoxicated person is prohibited.

Massachusetts law provides in General Laws Chapter 138, Section 69 that “No alcoholic beverage shall be sold or delivered on any premises licensed under this chapter to any intoxicated person.”

Boston Drunk Driving AccidentsThis means that it violation of the liquor control laws to sell alcohol to a person who is already drunk.   While that seems like common sense, and shouldn’t be that big a deal at first look, these 19 words have major implications in terms of a victim’s ability to recover from a drunk driving car crash in Boston.

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