Welcome to the ShTexaslawyer.com Blog

First off, if you came here to learn about defending a DWI charge, you need to call my friend Jonathan Bailey at 972-434-1555. He is a Board Certified Criminal Defense lawyer. I do not do criminal defense work.

DWI accidents are unfortunately very common and unfortunately usually quite traumatic. The speeds involved are higher and often the angle of impact is the worst possible. Head-on collisions are very common in DWI cases.

Hopefully the officers who respond to the accident will do a sobriety field test and arrest the drunk driver at the scene. If they do, they will often get a breath sample from the defendant and will take a video. These tests and observations by the arresting officers can be used as evidence in the injury claim that follows.

There are numerous issues to a DWI case. Granted, these issues all strengthen the claim against the defendant. However, care must be taken to secure the information and preserve it for the claim and possibly the trial.

When you are hit by a drunk driver the arrest information is just part of the case. It helps to prove the defendant was under the influence of an intoxicant at the time of the accident. If the driver was under the influence of an intoxicant then you can make a claim for gross negligence. Gross negligence is an enhancing factor to an injury claim. Gross negligence can allow for an award of punitive damages. Punitive damages are an award given in addition to the award for medical bills, injury, lost wages and pain.

Insurance companies have tactics for dealing with DWI claims. They know that if gross negligence is not claimed, they can admit to liability at trial and try to keep the fact of drunkenness from the jury in a civil trial. If the drunken state of the defendant is not heard by the jury they won’t be driven to punish the drunk driver.

In addition to proving the driver was intoxicated, it is important to find out why and how the driver was intoxicated. If the driver left a business that served alcohol to the driver it is possible to make the establishment a party to the claim. The Texas Dram Shop laws make restaurants and bars responsible for injuries caused by serving patrons to drunkenness. Proving where the driver drank the drink that made him or her drunk can be tricky. Credit card receipts, witnesses and even “over 21” stamps on wrists can be evidence of where a person was drinking. In one very tragic case I worked on both drivers died in the accident, and the drunk driver had a stamp on his wrist from the bar he had been drinking at. The hand stamp was very apparent in the scene photos by the officers and lead us to the bar where the DWI driver had last visited.