Carabin Shaw is one of the leading personal injury law firms in Austin and Texas. They have extensive experience in car accident cases, focusing on securing compensation for clients that reflects the full extent of their medical bills, property damage, and pain and suffering.
Specialization: Personal injury, truck accidents, car accidents, wrongful death, 18-wheeler accidents.
Why choose them? Carabin Shaw Law Firm offers a complimentary initial consultation, and their team is recognized for aggressively advocating for their clients’ rights.
Drunk Driving Car Accidents in Austin – Lawyers Who Hold Impaired Drivers Accountable
Austin’s legendary nightlife on Sixth Street, Rainey Street, and the surrounding entertainment districts makes drunk driving a persistent and deadly problem across the city. Despite the availability of ride-sharing services and public transportation, impaired drivers continue to cause devastating crashes that destroy lives and families. When a drunk driver injures you or someone you love, the law gives you the right to hold them financially accountable — and to seek punitive damages that go beyond covering your losses. Austin car accident lawyers at Carabin Shaw pursue drunk driving cases with the intensity these reckless acts demand.
Drunk driving crashes in Austin spike on weekend nights, during major events like SXSW, ACL Festival, and F1 race weekends, and around holidays. But impaired driving happens at all hours and in all parts of the city and surrounding communities like Round Rock, Cedar Park, and Pflugerville. Experienced car accident attorneys in Austin at Carabin Shaw handle drunk driving cases aggressively, pursuing every dollar of compensation available including punitive damages designed to punish the offender and deter others.
If you have been injured by a drunk driver in Austin, the criminal case will not compensate you for your injuries. You need a civil claim to recover the money you deserve. Car accident lawyers at Carabin Shaw can explain your options during a free consultation.
How Alcohol Impairs Driving Ability
Even small amounts of alcohol degrade the skills necessary for safe driving. At a blood alcohol concentration of just 0.02 percent, visual function and the ability to perform two tasks at once begin to decline. By 0.05 percent, steering control and emergency response time are noticeably impaired. At the legal limit of 0.08 percent, concentration, speed control, information processing, and situational awareness are all substantially compromised. Many drunk driving crashes in Austin involve drivers with BAC levels far above the legal threshold, where impairment is severe and dangerous.
Crashes caused by impaired drivers are often more violent than other types of collisions because the drunk driver typically fails to brake or take evasive action before impact. The full force of the collision is absorbed by the victim’s vehicle and its occupants, producing injuries that are frequently catastrophic or fatal.
Punitive Damages in Austin Drunk Driving Cases
Texas law allows victims of drunk driving accidents to seek punitive damages — also known as exemplary damages — on top of compensatory damages. Compensatory damages cover your actual losses including medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering. Punitive damages serve a different purpose — they punish the drunk driver for their grossly negligent behavior and deter others from making the same reckless choice.
To recover punitive damages, your lawyers must present clear and convincing evidence that the defendant acted with gross negligence or conscious indifference to the rights and safety of others. Choosing to drive while intoxicated is precisely the kind of conduct that Texas courts recognize as grounds for punitive damages. These awards can be substantial and often make up a significant portion of the total recovery.
Dram Shop Liability in Austin
Under the Texas Dram Shop Act, a bar, restaurant, or other establishment that serves alcohol to a visibly intoxicated person can be held liable if that person causes a car accident. If the establishment knew or should have known that the patron was obviously intoxicated and continued serving them, the business shares financial responsibility for the injuries caused by the drunk driver’s subsequent crash.
Given Austin’s dense concentration of bars and restaurants, dram shop claims are a realistic avenue of recovery in many local drunk driving cases. These claims add another source of compensation, which is especially valuable when the drunk driver has limited personal assets or inadequate insurance. Surveillance footage from the bar, server testimony, receipts, and witness observations all help prove that the establishment over-served the intoxicated patron.
The Criminal Case Versus Your Civil Claim
When a drunk driver is arrested and charged with DWI in Austin, the criminal case and your civil claim proceed separately. The criminal case is prosecuted by the Travis County District Attorney’s Office and focuses on punishment through fines, jail time, and license suspension. Your civil claim focuses on recovering compensation for your injuries and losses. You do not need to wait for the criminal case to conclude, and you can succeed in your civil case even if the criminal charges are reduced or dismissed because the burden of proof is lower in civil court.
A criminal conviction or guilty plea can strengthen your civil claim by establishing that the driver was legally intoxicated. Blood alcohol test results, field sobriety test results, and police body camera footage from the arrest are all valuable evidence in your civil case as well.
Ride-Sharing Is No Excuse
One of the most frustrating aspects of drunk driving crashes in Austin is that they are entirely preventable. With Uber, Lyft, public transportation, and designated driver programs readily available, there is no excuse for getting behind the wheel after drinking. When someone makes the choice to drive drunk despite having safe alternatives, they deserve to face the full financial consequences of their decision.
Carabin Shaw Fights for Austin Drunk Driving Accident Victims
Carabin Shaw’s Austin car accident lawyers take drunk driving cases personally. They believe that impaired drivers should face the full consequences of their reckless choices, and they pursue every available source of compensation including punitive damages and dram shop claims. If you have been hurt by a drunk driver in Austin, contact Carabin Shaw today for a free consultation and let their team fight for the justice you deserve.