Maison Law represents injury victims from accidents with or involving California fraternities and sororities. One of the most common incidents involves drinking too much alcohol, either in a party setting or being forced to through hazing. This, in turn, leads to alcohol poisoning and other injuries that could leave you or your loved ones facing challenges. Our team can help. Contact us today for a free consultation to learn more.
Do You Need a Lawyer?
Not every frat party in California is going to lead to alcohol poisoning or even injuries. But as you probably are aware, these situations can get out of hand quickly. But in terms of your legal options, there’s no requirement that says you need a lawyer.
However, the more hurt you are, the more challenging everything will be. This includes the legal process, and having our team on your side can make things much easier. Here’s how we can help you:
- We’ll investigate what happened and figure out who all is responsible.
- We’ll review accident reports and see if anything like this has happened in the past.
- We’ll help you gather crucial evidence and evaluate your damages
- We’ll guide you through the claims process and support your claim.
Again, our overall goal is to make things easier on you and your family. These types of incidents are especially frustrating because they’re preventable. Still, you have legal options in these situations. The first step is to figure out liability.
Liability and Damages in These Incidents
Legally speaking, alcohol poisoning and the resulting injuries and damage falls under a personal injury claim. This means that there’s two aspects that you’ll need to determine to fully explore an injury claim: liability and your damages.
These two parts of your claim are going to be specific to your particular incident. At the same time, there’s general guidelines for figuring these things out. For liability, it means establishing negligence. In a typical alcohol poisoning incident, negligence has four elements that need to be met:
- Duty of care – This means the responsibility to keep people safe. For alcohol poisoning incidents, it’s about making sure people don’t drink too much, have unrestricted access to alcohol, or drink excessively to the point of being hurt.
- Breach of duty – This happens when the duty of care isn’t met. For example, if someone keeps giving alcohol to someone who’s already drunk, they’re responsible for what happens. The same goes for property owners, landlords, or organizations that host the gathering.
- Causation – This is about showing that the breach of duty directly caused the harm. In alcohol poisoning cases, it means proving that the excessive drinking led to the injury.
- Damages – This refers to the harm suffered because of the breach. In alcohol poisoning claims, it could be medical bills, pain, lost work time, or other costs.
Under these circumstances, the following could share liability for your injuries:
- Individual fraternity members
- Other people
- The fraternity’s leadership
- The owner or landlord where the alcohol poisoning happenedThe
- The college or university
Damages
When you file your injury claim after alcohol poisoning, the overall goal is to recover “damages” relating to your losses. Alcohol poisoning can leave you facing life-long injuries in severe cases, but also short-term losses. In a claim, you can recover things like:
- Medical expenses
- Lost income or earning potential
- Pain and suffering
- Emotional distress
- Loss of quality of life
- Wrongful death expenses, if the alcohol poisoning is fatal
- Punitive damages, in cases of gross negligence
Remember, any injury claim in California has to be filed within a certain timeframe, known as the statute of limitations. Currently, you have two years from the date of the injury to file. Miss this deadline, and you won’t be able to recover damages.
What Causes Alcohol Poisoning?
In the context of a fraternity, it’s not difficult to see how alcohol poisoning happens. After all, many fraternity or sorority get-togethers involve alcohol, and are often rarely supervised if at all. But there’s a variety of different causes of and incidents leading to alcohol poisoning in these situations:
- Culture – Fraternities often encourage heavy drinking at parties and events to fit in. Peer pressure can make people drink too much, which can be dangerous.
- Binge drinking – Fraternities often drink a lot in a short time, which can quickly make their blood alcohol levels very high. This can lead to alcohol poisoning.
- Lack of monitoring – Again, many times there is no one watching how much people drink at fraternity events. Without someone keeping an eye on things, people might drink too much and get sick–or worse.
- Drinking games – Fraternities sometimes play games that make people drink a lot, very quickly. These games can be dangerous and increase the chance of alcohol poisoning.
- Inexperience – Many fraternity members are young and may not know how alcohol affects them. They might not realize when they’ve had too much to drink, which can lead to alcohol poisoning.
What Should You Do?
Again, the fun involved with these organizations and gatherings can quickly go south when there’s excessive drinking. So, if you believe that you or someone you’re with is in danger of alcohol-poisoning or other injuries, it’s important to do a few things to prioritize your health, safety and legal options:
- Watch for warning signs – Pay attention to signs that someone might have alcohol poisoning, like confusion, throwing up, breathing slowly, or passing out. If you see these signs in yourself or someone else, get medical help right away.
- Get medical attention – This is important in any injury situation, but especially in cases of alcohol-poisoning. Call an ambulance if you or someone you’re with is sick, then make sure that you get follow up care at a doctor or emergency room.
- Document what happened – If you or a friend gets alcohol poisoning because of what someone else did, write down what happened. Keep notes of who saw it, any conversations, and any proof you have. Also, report the incident to police, the college, or the fraternity leadership.
- Cooperate with investigations – If you decide to take legal action, help the police or lawyers by giving them any information they need. Show them anything that proves what happened.
Remember, the most important thing is staying safe. If you or someone else might be in danger from drinking too much, get help from a doctor right away. With that taken care of, consider contacting our team for a free consultation about your legal options.
Contact Maison Law After a California Fraternity Accident
Staying safe in a fraternity or heavy-drinking environment is sometimes difficult, regardless of the group involved. When you or someone you care about suffers alcohol poisoning, our California fraternity accident lawyers at Maison Law will be there to step in and make sure you have what you need to make a recovery. To get the process started, contact us today for a free consultation.
