San Diego, Orange County & Palm Springs California Hotel, Restaurant & Bar Lawyer on the Risks of Serving Alcohol to Minors in Drinking Establishments

Every hotel, restaurant, bar and nightclub in California is warned repeatedly how dangerous it is to their reputation, income, liability and their Alcohol Beverage and Control License if they serve alcohol to a minor. The knowledge of this danger has recently been enforced in the minds of hotel and restaurant owners in the Coachella Valley cities of La Quinta, Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Rancho Mirage, Indio, Coachella and Cathedral City.

But the lesson learned in the Coachella Valley holds true also for restaurants and hotels in Anaheim, Long Beach, San Diego, Orange County, Santa Ana, Irvine, Huntington Beach, orange, Costa Mesa, Carlsbad, Santa Monica, Newport Beach, Buena Park, the Inland Empire area of Rancho Cucamonga, Riverside, and Temecula and up the coast to Ventura, Oxnard, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo as well.

In August two restaurants in the Coachella Valley, one in Rancho Mirage and another in La Quinta had their liquor licenses suspended for 30 days after serving alcohol to minors. Both restaurants chose to shut down and use the time for remodeling.

It's bad enough if the Alcohol and Beverage Control Board catches a restaurant serving alcohol to a minor, but what is unusual in these two cases is how the restaurants were caught and sad what happened to the minors.

In the case of the Rancho Mirage restaurant, the minor died in a car accident. In the La Quinta incident, the minor jumped to his death from a pickup truck.

It gets even worse. In the Rancho Mirage restaurant case, the minor was riding in a car with a friend who had also been drinking but who was not a minor. Both died when their vehicle hit a curb and rolled over. Both had been drinking at the restaurant. The older of the two had a blood alcohol reading of 0.23. The minor had a blood alcohol reading of 0.12. The legal limit in California is 0.08.

In the La Quinta restaurant incident, the 19 year-old minor had dinner with his girlfriend, with the twenty-two year-old male driver of the vehicle, the driver's wife and their two year-old child.

At some point, it was reported, the driver of the pickup truck struck his wife. The minor then threatened to jump from the vehicle if the driver continued to fight with his wife. The minor kept his promise while the truck was driving between 30 to 40 miles per hour.

The La Quinta restaurant was also hit with a two year probation, which if violated, could lead to the revocation of their liquor license.

This litany of events does not even consider what number of civil lawsuits may be filed as a result of these two incidents, the grief of the families of those who died, or the losses the two restaurants can expect to incur as a result of the inattention of their employees.

When a restaurant or hotel serves an adult, in California there is generally no responsibility if that adult is later involved in a drunk driving accident. There are no actions taken by the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. Not so when the restaurant or hotel serves alcohol to an intoxicated minor. Then all bets are off.

If you have a food & wine, liquor, alcohol or hotel, restaurant, bar or nightclub legal issue in San Diego, Palm Springs, Orange County or anywhere in Southern California, we have the knowledge and resources to be your Newport Beach Hotel & Restaurant Lawyers, and Palm Desert Wine & Alcohol Attorneys. For this reason, be sure to hire a California law firm with hotel, restaurant, food & wine lawyers who can represent you from Palm Springs, San Luis Obispo, Laguna, Newport and Huntington Beach, Corona del Mar, Anaheim, Irvine, La Jolla, Santa Barbara, Temecula, Cambria, Paso Robles, Palm Desert, Yorba Linda, Carlsbad, San Diego, Costa Mesa, Westminster, and Murrieta, to Indian Wells and La Quinta.

If you have an food and wine, alcohol, liquor or hotel, restaurant, bar or nightclub legal issue, and need to know your rights, call the Law Offices of R. Sebastian Gibson, or visit our website at http://www.sebastiangibsonlaw.com and learn how we can assist you. You can also call us to speak directly to Sebastian Gibson on the phone about your legal matter.