I was intrigued by the story of new U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s brush with the law back when he was a student at Yale in 1985. According to witnesses and police reports of the time, he got into at least a shoving match with a gentleman whom he believed to be the lead singer of the British reggae/pop band UB40. While you may never be on the Supreme Court or get into a UB40-inspired shoving match, you may end up in a bar fight or, more likely, may be injured when a bar fight breaks out near you. If you are injured in a or by a bar fight, you may be able to attain compensation for your injuries.
If you have sustained an injury as a result of a bar fight, you must hire experienced counsel to help you attain your fair share of compensation for your pain and injuries. Barrett Law has the experience to help you if you have been injured. Contact us now at (800) 707-9577.
Bar Fights and Negligence
To recover for any injuries you received as a result of a fight, your attorney will have to establish negligence. Generally speaking, negligence means that a person was aware of a risk or should have been aware of a risk to you and ignored that risk or failed to mitigate it, causing harm to you sufficiently.
If you are injured because of a bar fight as an innocent bystander or participant, for your personal injury claim to succeed you must prove:
- The drinking establishment had a legal duty to protect you from injuries.
- The drinking establishment could foresee the risk that caused your injuries.
- The drinking establishment breached a legal duty to protect you.
- The breach resulted in your injuries.
One significant factor in the negligence analysis is whether you instigated the fight. Mississippi has a “pure” comparative negligence system. That means if your injuries were 99% your fault because you started a bar fight, you could still sue, but could only recover for 1% of your damages. This will not be a factor if you merely swept up in a fight that is not of your creation. On the other hand, even if you did start the fight, you may still have a viable claim for all of your injuries if the excessively violent security personnel caused them.
Bar Owners’ Legal Duties
A bar owner must hire adequate security to stop or substantially minimize the likelihood of bar fights. Again, they must reasonably remove or reduce the risk of injury to their patrons. Accordingly, the more likely bar fights are, the more security personnel must be present. If a bar typically has two security personnel present on a Saturday night, that may be unreasonable if they are hosting a spring break concert and expect five times their normal patronage.
In turn, security personnel must be trained and must take appropriate steps when tensions rise. Merely having security personnel in place will not help if they are not trained and do not take reasonable steps to defuse, de-escalate, and stop violent situations.
That said, bouncers can also cause problems for bar owners. If bouncers use excessive force to break up fights, and that force results in unnecessary injuries to the fighters and bystanders, they may cause as much liability as they prevent. Bouncers have to walk a fine line; they can use force, but only enough force to stop a violent patron. If they exceed that limit, they may cause incur liability for assault, battery, unlawful imprisonment, and other claims.
What Should You Were Injured Due to a Bar Fight?
If you or a loved one was injured due to a bar fight, you might have a viable personal injury claim against the bar owner and those involved in the fight for your injuries, any time you have been out of work, the costs of your treatment and rehabilitation, your pain and suffering, and other damages. This is my area of expertise.
Call Barrett Law now, an experienced Mississippi personal injury law firm, to represent you if you have suffered an injury. Contact us now at (800) 707-9577.
