Have you ever hosted a party that involved serving alcohol?  If so, you may be unaware that serving alcohol at your shin-dig puts you at risk of being found liable for what happens to your guests afterwards.  In other words, if one or more of your guests gets into an accident and gets injured or even gets killed, you can be found responsible for the injuries or death.  Therefore, it is important to take a few steps to make sure this doesn’t happen to you.

Getting Insurance in Place

Obviously, the best way to keep yourself protected is to make certain you have insurance in place.  You may think you don’t need to have insurance.  After all, your guests should have car insurance and this should cover them if they are in an accident, right?  While this may be true – assuming your guests have the proper insurance coverage in place – they may not have enough coverage.  In addition, your guest’s car insurance company may actually pursue you for the damages because you served alcohol at your party and allowed your guest to drive while in a drunken state.

In order to keep yourself covered, you should check into your homeowner’s or renter’s insurance policy.  Generally, your coverage will help protect you from an event such as this.  Still, you may want to consider increasing the coverage before you have your get together.

Reducing the Chances of an Accident

The easiest way to prevent an accident from occurring is to avoid serving alcohol at your party.  If you feel that serving alcohol is a must, however, there are a few things you can do to help reduce the level of toxicity of your guests and to prevent anyone from getting behind the wheel while drunk.  Here are a few suggestions:

• Only invite people that you know quite well.  That way, you will have good idea about their drinking habits.
• Keep your guest list limited to those people that know each other, as people are less likely to over drink when they are comfortable with the people they are around.
• Make sure to greet every guest and to take their keys and coats when they enter your home.  That way, you can check their level of toxicity before handing the keys back.
• Provide designated drivers with small gifts or have a drawing for designated drivers in order to reward those that choose not to drink.
• Stay sober so you can better determine who is fit to drive.
• Provide foods that are high in starches and proteins so alcohol absorption is slowed down and guests have something to do other than drink.
• Provide plenty of entertainment to keep guests occupied and to reduce their desire to drink.

By following these simple steps, you can reduce the likelihood of dealing with an accident after your party.  Not only will you avoid being found liable in such a situation, you just may save the life of a friend.

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