Drunk Driving Accident Lawyers in Summerville

Officers in the Summerville Police Department's Traffic Safety Unit train in DUI detection and standardized field sobriety testing. Three grant-funded positions in that unit concentrate on impaired and dangerous drivers.

Jack C. Frost logged fourteen years of law enforcement work. With the Summerville Police Department, he was an officer and corporal. At the Charleston County Sheriff's Office, he worked as a deputy, master deputy and detective. He knows how an arrest report, its test records and its video fit together.

When an impaired driver flees instead, Frost Law Group handles the hit and run claim, which may run through your own uninsured motorist coverage. South Carolina makes that coverage mandatory on auto policies under Section 38-77-150.

Breath Test Results and the .08 Line

Section 56-5-2950 requires the breath sample within two hours of the arrest. Before the test starts, a simulator check has to read within a narrow band around .08. In the criminal prosecution, a result of .08 or more allows an inference that the driver was under the influence.

A result of .05 or less creates a conclusive presumption that the driver was not. Driving at .08 or higher is also its own offense under Section 56-5-2933. Those inferences belong to the criminal case by the statute's own terms. In your civil claim, the reading, if the court admits it, is one piece of proof alongside the driving, the video and the witnesses.

Scene and Breath Site Video Under Section 56-5-2953

Section 56-5-2953 requires video of a DUI suspect at the incident site and at the breath test site. The roadside video must start no later than the officer's blue lights and must capture any field sobriety tests and the arrest. At a crash investigation where the blue lights never triggered the camera, recording must start once practicable. At the breath site, the camera records the full test and, in most cases, the 20-minute waiting period before it.

The statute makes both recordings admissible under the South Carolina Rules of Evidence in a criminal, administrative or civil proceeding, by any party. It also bars disposing of a recording until any legal proceeding involving it is finally resolved. A lawyer can ask for both recordings in writing early in the claim.

Felony DUI applies when an impaired driver does something the law forbids, or neglects a legal duty, while driving. That act or neglect must proximately cause great bodily injury or death to another person. Proximate cause means a direct, legally recognized cause. Great bodily injury means bodily injury carrying a substantial risk of death or causing serious, permanent disfigurement. It also covers a long-lasting loss or impairment of a body function. That level of harm brings a mandatory fine of $5,100 to $10,100 and 30 days to 15 years in prison.

A death raises the range to a fine of $10,100 to $25,100 and 1 to 25 years. No part of either sentence may be suspended, and probation is barred. Frost Law Group handles catastrophic injury claims from impaired-driver crashes, where the medical proof has to cover a lifetime of care.

Picture a driver who leaves a New Year's Eve party and rear-ends you on Central Avenue just before midnight on December 31, 2025. That claim arose before the Act's start, so the older rules generally govern even if suit is filed in 2026. The Act says after January 1, 2026, not on or after. A crash on that exact day raises a question a lawyer should research.

A bar's liquor liability policy written in 2025 was bought under the older $1,000,000 requirement. That policy may still be in force for a crash in 2026.

Joint and several liability lets an injured person collect the entire award from any one defendant found responsible. Since July 1, 2005, Section 15-38-15 has restricted that rule, in its older version and its current one alike. A defendant whose share of fault is under 50% usually pays only that share. The versions differ on which defendants lose that protection, so Frost Law Group can check the controlling one before weighing a claim against several defendants.

The Alcohol Exception Before 2026

Under the older subsection (F), the 50% limit did not protect a defendant whose conduct involved the use, sale or possession of alcohol. Grossly negligent conduct fell outside the limit too. A drunk driver assigned less than half the fault could still owe the entire award on the alcohol ground alone. That version still governs claims that arose before the Act took effect.

What Still Triggers Full Liability Under the 2026 Version

Act No. 42 struck the alcohol and gross negligence exceptions from subsection (F). The limit still does not apply to willful, wanton, reckless or intentional conduct. Conduct involving illegal drug use, sale or possession also stays outside it. So alcohol alone no longer makes a driver answer for the whole award. Jurors may still find that driving drunk was reckless, and that finding would restore full liability.

The verdict form is the sheet on which the jury records fault and damages. Tortfeasor means a person whose wrongful conduct caused harm. Under Section 61-2-147, a tortfeasor charged under Section 56-5-2930, 56-5-2933 or 56-5-2945 goes on that form if a defendant asks. The motion must come within 180 days after the suit begins, or later for good cause. The injured person may also add the charged driver as a defendant, and the amendment relates back to the start of the case.

Suppose you settle with the driver's insurer and then sue the restaurant that served him. Subsection (B) still puts the settling driver on the verdict form, whatever the timing. The share the jury then assigns each person depends on evidence no lawyer can forecast.

Section 61-4-580 already covered beer and wine permit holders and their staff. It barred knowing sales to an intoxicated person or anyone under 21. Section 61-6-2220, which covers liquor sales including liquor by the drink, read differently. Until 2026 it said a licensee may not sell to persons in an intoxicated condition. Since January 1, 2026, it says a licensee "may not knowingly sell."

Section 61-4-580 now opens its penalty subsection with the words "In addition to civil liability as provided by law." It sets a $2,500 fine for a first violation and a suspension of up to 14 days for a second within two years. A third violation within three years brings revocation.

Under the old subsection (F), a bar whose conduct involved selling alcohol also fell outside the 50% limit. That could leave it jointly and severally liable for the whole award. For claims accruing after January 1, 2026, Act 42 removed that exception and added Section 61-2-147. If one verdict finds against both a licensee and a DUI-charged driver, the licensee becomes jointly and severally liable for half the plaintiff's actual damages.

Actual damages repay real losses such as medical bills and lost pay. Punitive damages fall outside the rule. Because the rule is new, a lawyer reads its exact words against the verdict in each case.

A business that sells alcohol for drinking on the premises and stays open after 5 PM must carry liquor liability insurance. A general liability policy with a liquor liability endorsement also works. The pre-2026 version required total coverage of at least $1,000,000. Policies issued after January 1, 2026, need an annual aggregate of at least $1,000,000, with each occurrence covered for at least half of that aggregate. An aggregate limit is the most the policy pays for all claims in a year.

Risk Mitigation Credits That Lower the Minimum

The new version lets a business cut its required aggregate by meeting risk mitigation terms. Each credit comes off the $1,000,000 figure, and a business can combine them. No combination may take the aggregate under $300,000 while the business holds its permit or license. Frost Law Group can ask early for a Summerville bar's declarations page, since its limit may sit well short of $1,000,000.

Last Call at Midnight and Late-Night ID Scanning

Stopping alcohol service by midnight for the entire policy period earns a $250,000 reduction. Using a forensic digital ID scanner on everyone who tries to enter between midnight and 4 AM earns $100,000. A business that serves in that late window must use the scanner anyway under subsection (F). If the system keeps entry records, they may show when a patron arrived.

Trained Servers, Food Sales and Nonprofit Events

A $100,000 reduction applies when every employee who serves alcohol finishes state-approved training within 60 days of starting that job. Another $100,000 applies when alcohol makes up less than 40% of total sales, counting food and nonalcoholic drinks. A 501(c)(3) nonprofit, or a business running a single event under a special event license or permit, may take $500,000 off.

Lapsed Coverage and the Department of Revenue

An insurer that writes this coverage must notify the Department of Revenue within 30 days after the policy lapses or ends. Failing to keep coverage for the whole permit period is grounds for suspension or revocation. A lapse can leave less insurance to pay a claim, even though the business itself may still be liable.

Act 42 added Chapter 3 to Title 61, which requires alcohol servers and managers to complete state-approved training. An employer must provide it within 30 calendar days of hiring a server who lacks a current state authorization. That is a shorter window than the 60 days the insurance credit allows. The online course runs at least four hours, ends with a proctored test and covers signs of intoxication and DUI law. A server may not be impaired while serving.

Section 61-3-110 requires the business to keep copies of each server's authorization on the premises while that person works there. Frost Law Group can ask for those copies, along with staff schedules, when a claim names a bar. Together they show who worked that night and whether each server's training was current.

Marcum asks for more than ordinary carelessness. The host must have served the alcohol knowingly and intentionally, or caused someone else to serve it. The age element turns on what the host knew, or reasonably should have known, about each guest. Social media posts, texts about who would buy the beer and statements from other guests can speak to both elements.

A footnote in Marcum states that a host who knowingly and intentionally serves a minor under 18 is liable to that guest and to third parties. The court left open whether a merely negligent host is liable for serving a guest under 18. For guests 21 or older, Marcum restated that a South Carolina social host has no liability to anyone hurt by an intoxicated adult guest. The guest's age can decide whether a party claim exists at all.

Section 61-2-147 speaks only of a licensee, so its 50% rule does not describe a private host. A party host falls under the general fault rules in Section 15-38-15 instead. Since 2005, that section has let a defendant with less than half the fault ordinarily pay only its own share. Act No. 42 took away the old exception for conduct involving alcohol, though only for claims that accrue after January 1, 2026.

The 50% protection still drops away if the jury finds the host's conduct willful, wanton, reckless or intentional. No one can promise how a jury will see it.

Section 15-32-520 sets the standard of proof. The injured person must show by clear and convincing evidence that the harm came from willful, wanton or reckless conduct. That is a demanding standard, stricter than the proof needed for ordinary damages. Tara L. Frost's years as a Dorchester County Magistrate Judge, which ended in August 2025, showed her how fact finders apply a standard like this one to the proof.

The Compensatory Stage Comes First

If any defendant facing a punitive claim asks, a jury trial must be bifurcated, meaning split into two stages before the same jury. In the first stage, the jury decides liability and the amount of compensatory damages, the money that repays losses. Evidence that bears only on punitive damages stays out until later. Punitive damages come up only if the jury first awards compensatory damages or nominal damages, a token award for a legal wrong.

What the Jury Weighs in the Second Stage

Section 15-32-520(E) lists factors for setting the amount. They include the driver's degree of blame, awareness, any concealment, similar past conduct and ability to pay. The list also names any criminal penalties imposed for the same conduct, which brings the DUI sentence into the jury's weighing. In a case with several defendants, each punitive award must be specific to one defendant.

Section 15-32-530 of the South Carolina Code generally limits punitive damages to $500,000 or three times the compensatory award, whichever is greater. The $500,000 figure moves with inflation every year, and the jury never learns about the cap. The trial court decides whether an exception applies. Act No. 42 did not amend Section 15-32-530, so the same cap rules reach crashes on both sides of January 1, 2026.

Judgment Substantially Impaired by Alcohol or Drugs

No cap applies when the defendant acted while alcohol substantially impaired his or her judgment. The same exception covers drugs other than lawfully prescribed ones taken as prescribed, and intentionally consumed glue, aerosol or other toxic vapor. Having a drink is not enough by itself, since the court looks for substantial impairment of judgment. Drunk driving accident lawyers in Summerville can draw that proof from the breath result, the video and the rest of the record.

A Felony Plea, a Conviction or Felony Exposure

A felony guilty plea or felony conviction tied to the same conduct also lifts the cap, as long as that conduct caused the damages. Felony DUI under Section 56-5-2945 can fit when the crash caused great bodily injury or death. Without a plea or conviction, the court may still raise the cap to four times compensatory damages or $2,000,000, whichever is greater. That tier applies when the defendant's actions could lead to a felony conviction.