Scott Krist 
What Are Punitive Damages?
Punitive damages are one of three types of compensation you may be awarded in a personal injury case. The other categories are economic and non-economic damages, and these categories encompass medical bills, lost wages, property damage, pain and suffering, and disability.
They are intended solely to cover your actual damages and losses in an accident.
Punitive damages go above and beyond this.
They are only awarded when the person liable for the accident demonstrated a wanton disregard for safety and acted in a grossly negligent manner.
Punitive Damages if the Other Driver Was Drunk
After a drunk driving car accident, it is likely that you are entitled to punitive damages.
Drunk driving, in and of itself, is grossly negligent. When drivers get behind the wheel after drinking, they know there is a chance that their driving will be impaired. Knowing that and choosing to drive anyway is negligent.
Punitive damages are meant to punish the person and / or entity responsible for the accident.
The amount should be high enough to penalize them for their decisions and to discourage others from engaging in similar behavior.
Filing a Drunk Driving Lawsuit in Houston, TX
Texas is an at-fault state for automotive accidents.
This means that each driver must carry insurance to pay for injuries and other damage they cause in a car crash. Ideally, you would be able to file a claim against their insurance, collect a settlement, and get back to your life.
However, insurance companies don’t generally handle things that smoothly or that quickly. You may also choose to file a claim with your own insurance if the at fault driver doesn’t have insurance coverage or has insufficient coverage.
In the event of a drunk driving accident, you can still file against the driver’s insurance, but your injuries might be so severe that they exhaust the policy coverage limits. You could wind up with hundreds of thousands of dollars in surgery costs, rehabilitative care, and subjective losses. In cases like these, you will need to pursue a drunk driving lawsuit with the help of an experienced Houston car accident attorney.
By filing a civil lawsuit, you have a greater chance of recovering every penny of your damages, including all your past medical care expenses and projected future costs for full recovery. If the actions of the drunk driver were especially careless or negligent, the court could award punitive damages on top of the compensatory award you receive.
Other Potentially Responsible Parties in a Drunk Driving Lawsuit
While the drunk driver is obviously the first person you want to hold accountable for your car accident, Texas law allows you to pursue other potentially liable parties as well.
Your personal injury attorney can include the establishment that overserved the driver under the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Code Ann. §2.01 (The Texas Dram Shop Act), a law put in place to allocate responsibility to bars and restaurants that serve alcohol to already intoxicated individuals who subsequently cause damage to others.
To use this law in your case, your attorney must show that intoxication was a proximate cause of the crash and your injuries directly resulted from the wreck. You should also know the following about dram shop laws:
- Your attorney can help you file an insurance claim and / or a lawsuit against the drunk driver, but there is no such direct insurance option available for a dram shop claim. You will need to file a personal injury lawsuit against the establishment to seek financial relief for your damages.
- If your attorney’s investigation determines that the drunk driver was drinking at a party held by friends, the Dram Shop Act doesn’t apply. In cases like these, the people who held the party are known as social hosts, and you’ll need to file a personal injury lawsuit against them individually.
- If the driver who hit you was under age 18, the Dram Shop Act protection that requires your attorney to prove proximate cause won’t protect the establishment. Your drunk driving lawyer in Houston, TX can pursue them aggressively to pay their share of the damages you are owed.