Am I Liable For Drunk Drivers When They Leave My Home?

I’ve got an interesting and trending topic for you today. Am I liable for drunk drivers who leave my home? Very great question. A lot of people want to know the answer to that question because we’re often hosts at a party at our own home and serving alcohol or have guests over who are drinking.

So it boils down into two questions, is there criminal liability? And is there civil liability in other words a lawsuit versus criminal. In criminal liability the general answer is no. I mean, you know, the fault lies on the driver. Criminally we charge people with impaired driving by death or causing bodily harm if they get an accident. We don’t generally charge the host who serve them like a bar or a person, but there may be some narrow exceptions to that. Let’s say, for example, that you knew the person was drunk. They’re stumbling, they’re slurring, and you visibly gave them the car keys, encouraged them to drive home. Well, you’re, at that point, really an aider and abettor arguably. It’s a party under Section 21 of the Criminal Code. That’s a very narrow exception. You would be kind of a crazy host to do that. But you asked the question in my YouTube channel on various questions I want to answer. So there’s a narrow exception where you could be but generally not. I mean, obviously, use common sense. Who in the right mind is going to do that and get charged criminally?

Now civil host responsibility is a much different situation. If you’re a homeowner, that’s what is actually called you’re a social host, so you’re serving alcohol to people at your party. So you have to be very careful in this situation. There’s a case that came out from the Supreme Court of Canada in 2006 called Childs v Desormeaux, and that’s the leading case about social liability. By the way, the homeowner in that case was found not liable. They had no reason to believe that the person was drunk or was going to drive drunk. But let’s say you’re in a situation where you’re serving and you see that one of your guests is visibly drunk. They’re slurring their words or stumbling. You need to take reasonable steps to try to stop them from driving. You need to try and offer them a cab, offer them a place to stay, suggest they’re not driving. You know, maybe physically take the keys that that’s possible if they have them in their hands. If you don’t do that and you let them get in the car and they kill someone or cause bodily harm to someone you could be liable under Childs v Desormeaux, because you didn’t take those reasonable steps. It was foreseeable. You saw it. You had a duty of care to that person and other people in the roadway, because you effectively knew that they were going to, you know, get, get an accident, basically because someone that drunk could if it’s perfectly foreseeable, and you could be out of pocket millions of dollars. I mean, if they render someone to paraplegic, quadriplegic in that situation, what could happen is you could be sued for way beyond your limits to your insurance and your home policy, and be bankrupt. So you have to be very careful, use your head, watch your guests if you’re serving alcohol, and just it’s reasonable steps. I mean, if the person said, no, I’m driving and you tried to offer a taxi, well, you did everything you could. You can’t sit there and physically beat them up and restrain them off you. But that’s, that’s the Childs v Desormeaux case. So just be careful in these situations. Use your head. It’s a lot of common sense. Nothing to be afraid of just make sure you do the right thing at the right time and exercise common sense. So there’s the answer, criminal liability. Kind of farfetched. I mean, I can give you a hypothetical scenario for some crazy homeowner encourage a stumbling person to drive and they kill someone. Well, arguably, they’re a party under Section 21 of the Criminal Code because they aided and abetted their driving, but in the second situation most social hosts are going to be fine as long as you exercise, common sense and encourage people to take a cab and try and take their keys, and offer them up a place to stay.