Injured by a drunk driver in New Braunfels, TX? Contact the top New Braunfels drunk driving accident lawyer to seek justice and compensation.
A drunk driver stole something from you, whether that is your health, your ability to work, or the person who was riding beside you. Alcohol-related crashes in Texas frequently leave families struggling to get the recovery they need, and the driver’s personal auto insurance is rarely enough to cover a serious injury on its own.
We are Vendt Accident Attorneys, and our drunk driving accident lawyers know Texas law gives you a second path most people never hear about. Under the Texas Dram Shop Act, the bar, restaurant, or venue that kept pouring drinks for a visibly intoxicated patron can be held financially responsible too, and we know how to trace a crash on I-35 or Loop 337 back to the last drink poured.
Call (832) 490-7088 or contact us online for a free consultation with our auto accident attorneys specializing in drunk driving accident cases. We can send a legal preservation letter to the bar before the surveillance video is gone, and your consultation is free.
Why Choose Vendt Accident Attorneys
Our team brings 85 years of combined Texas personal injury experience, and we know exactly what it takes to win a dram shop case from investigation through verdict. Founding attorney Frank Vendt, Jr. has served as President of the Fort Bend County Bar Association, and of-counsel attorney Scott M. Broussard brings more than 25 years of Texas jury-trial experience to every case we take on.
We are not a settlement mill. We prepare every case for a Comal County courtroom from day one, which gives us real leverage when we sit across from a bar’s insurance defense team.
- Local presence: Our New Braunfels office means we know the courts, the roads, and the venues where over-service too often ends in tragedy.
- Trial-tested: We take on corporate defendants and insurance companies, and we do not back down when they try to minimize what your case is worth.
- Contingency fee: You owe us nothing unless we recover for you, we advance every cost of building your case so you can focus on healing.
“Scott Broussard helped me tremendously when I went through a major car accident. It was a very stressful time, but he made the whole ordeal so much more manageable. And he fought to made sure I was taken care of and compensated accordingly! Very highly recommend.” – Abel Rocha
What Is Texas Dram Shop Law?
A “dram shop” is any business licensed by the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC) to sell alcohol, bars, restaurants, clubs, liquor stores, and sporting venues. The Texas Dram Shop Act holds these businesses legally responsible when they serve a patron who is “obviously intoxicated to the extent they presented a clear danger to themselves and others,” and that person goes on to injure someone else.
This matters to you because bars and restaurants carry commercial liability insurance with far higher coverage limits than an individual drunk driver. A successful dram shop claim can dramatically change the total compensation available to you.
Who Can You Sue after a Drunk Driving Crash?
The drunk driver is rarely the only responsible party. A thorough investigation often reveals multiple defendants, and multiple insurance policies, that can make a substantial difference in your recovery.
Bar or Restaurant Liability under the Dram Shop Act
Any TABC-licensed establishment that continued serving a visibly intoxicated patron can be held liable for the harm that followed. This applies to bars in the Gruene Historic District, restaurants along Common Street, and vendors serving alcohol at events like Wurstfest.
Social Host Liability in Texas
Texas imposes narrow social host liability. An adult 21 or older who knowingly provides alcohol to an unrelated minor under 18, not their own child, stepchild, or legal ward, can be held liable if that minor causes a crash.
Claims Against the Drunk Driver
Your civil claim against the driver proceeds independently of any criminal DUI charges they face. Even if the district attorney does not prosecute, your right to pursue compensation through a civil lawsuit remains fully intact.
Employer and Third-Party Liability
If the at-fault driver was working when the crash happened, making a delivery, operating a company vehicle, or attending a corporate event, their employer may share liability under a legal principle called respondeat superior, which holds a business responsible for harm caused by an employee acting within the scope of their job.
Do You Have a Dram Shop Case?
Dram shop claims require specific evidence connecting the bar’s conduct to your injuries, it is not enough to show the driver was drunk. We must trace the overservice back to the establishment itself. Here is how we build that proof.
How We Prove Overservice and Intoxication
A forensic toxicologist is often the most critical expert in a dram shop case. Using a method called retrograde extrapolation, they work backwards from the driver’s blood alcohol content (BAC) at the time of the crash to estimate how intoxicated the driver was when the bar last served them, providing direct proof of overservice.
|
Evidence Type |
Why It Matters |
What We Do |
|
Surveillance Video |
Captures the driver’s behavior and how many drinks were poured |
Send a preservation letter before footage is overwritten |
|
Point-of-Sale (POS) Data |
Creates a drink-by-drink transaction timeline |
Subpoena all sales records tied to the at-fault driver |
|
Witness Accounts |
Bartenders and patrons can confirm visible intoxication |
Identify and interview every witness who was at the establishment |
The “Safe Harbor” Defense
Bars frequently claim a “safe harbor” defense, arguing they are protected from liability because their servers completed a TABC-approved alcohol training program. We defeat this defense by proving management encouraged overservice, untrained staff were serving, or the establishment’s own internal policies were routinely ignored.
What If You Were a Passenger or Also Drank?
As a passenger in the drunk driver’s car, you bear no fault for their decision to get behind the wheel; your claim is strong. Texas also follows a modified comparative fault rule, meaning you can still recover compensation as long as you are found to be less than 51% responsible for the crash.
A pattern we see often in Comal County dram shop cases is the bar producing a certificate of TABC training for its staff within days of a crash, hoping that piece of paper ends the conversation. In the claims we have worked through the Gruene Historic District bar scene, that certificate rarely matches what the video or the receipts show about how long a patron was actually served, and we have found the safe harbor defense falls apart once the internal pour logs come out.
What to Do after a DUI Crash in New Braunfels
The decisions you make in the first hours after a crash directly shape the strength of your case. Your health comes first, but these steps protect your legal rights at the same time.
- Call 911 and accept medical care. The responding officer’s report documents the driver’s impairment, and your medical records link the crash directly to your injuries.
- Document the scene. Use your phone to photograph the vehicles, the area, and your injuries. Note any visible signs of intoxication, slurred speech, unsteady movement, the smell of alcohol, and report them to the officer on scene.
- Call us before speaking to any insurance adjuster. Adjusters represent the other side. Calling us first means we begin securing bar evidence immediately, before it disappears.
What Compensation Can You Recover?
Texas law allows you to pursue both economic damages, losses with a clear dollar value, and non-economic damages, which account for the personal toll of what you have been through. You may be entitled to recover:
- Past and future medical expenses, including surgery, rehabilitation, and long-term care
- Lost wages and reduced future earning capacity
- Physical pain, suffering, and mental anguish
- Disfigurement and permanent physical impairment
- Property damage to your vehicle
- Loss of consortium for spouses
- Wrongful death damages for surviving family members
In drunk driving cases, courts may also award punitive damages, a financial penalty designed to punish defendants for reckless disregard of public safety. Texas law caps these at the greater of $200,000 or two times your economic damages plus up to $750,000 in non-economic damages.
In our experience handling drunk driving injury claims out of New Braunfels, the driver’s personal auto policy is almost never enough on its own, especially for crashes on I-35 or Loop 337 where speed and impact severity push medical costs well past standard liability limits. Identifying a dram shop defendant early, before the bar’s insurer has a chance to shape the narrative, is usually what separates a fair recovery from a policy-limits settlement.
How We Fight for You
We built this firm on the belief that injured Texans deserve the same level of aggressive, fully resourced advocacy that insurance companies and corporate defendants bring to every claim. We do not treat your case as a line item to settle quickly; we treat it as a personal obligation to you and to your community.
When an insurer’s offer falls short of what you are truly owed, we do not flinch. We take your fight to a jury if that is what justice demands.
Wrongful Death after a Drunk Driving Crash
If you lost a spouse, parent, or child to a drunk driver, the Texas Wrongful Death Act gives surviving family members the right to pursue compensation for that profound loss. A dram shop claim is often the most significant source of recovery in fatal DUI cases, because a bar’s commercial liability coverage can reach far beyond what the at-fault driver’s personal auto policy will ever cover.
New Braunfels Roads and High-Risk Areas
New Braunfels draws visitors to the Comal River, Gruene Hall, and festivals throughout the year, and that activity puts impaired drivers on the city’s busiest corridors. Drunk driving crashes are especially common on I-35, Loop 337, FM 306, and Walnut Avenue, particularly on weekends and during peak event season. We know these roads and Comal County courts, and we are prepared to fight for you wherever the crash happened.
What we see consistently in crashes along Walnut Avenue and near the festival grounds during peak event season is a spike in over-service claims tied to a handful of venues, and adjusters for those venues know it. We push for the bar’s own incident reports and prior TABC citation history early, because a pattern of past over-service is often the strongest piece of evidence in the case.
How Long You Have to File a Claim in Texas
Texas law gives you two years from the date of your accident to file a personal injury lawsuit, a deadline known as the statute of limitations. For dram shop cases, the practical window is far shorter. Bar video and receipt records can be gone within days of a crash, which is why calling our firm immediately after an accident is so important.
“I’m sure you’ve heard the joke about trusting your attorney. It’s no joke with Frank Vendt Jr. He’s got your back. He’s amazing in court, and he knows his stuff. His staff is amazing and very helpful. I’m forever grateful for his expertise and guidance through a very difficult case. If Google would allow me to give him 10 stars, I would.” – Paula Mynatt
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a Bar Escape Liability if Its Servers Were TABC-Certified?
Not automatically. We defeat the safe harbor defense by proving management encouraged overservice, policies were violated, or uncertified staff were serving alcohol the night of the crash.
Can I File a Dram Shop Claim if I Was a Passenger in the Drunk Driver’s Car?
Yes. As a passenger, you bear no responsibility for the driver’s choice to drink, which puts you in one of the strongest positions possible in a dram shop case.
What Happens if the Drunk Driver Carries Only Minimum Auto Insurance?
A bar’s commercial liability policy typically carries far higher limits than a personal auto policy, which is why the dram shop claim frequently becomes the most valuable piece of your total recovery.
Can Punitive Damages Apply Even if the Bar Did Not Know the Driver Would Drive?
Yes. Punitive damages are tied to the establishment’s reckless act of continuing to serve an obviously intoxicated patron, not to what they believed that person would do afterward.
What Does It Cost to Hire Vendt Accident Attorneys?
Nothing upfront and nothing at all unless we win. We advance every cost of building and litigating your case, and our fee comes solely from the recovery we secure for you.