Im underage, im drunk, i drove, i crashed, im paralyzed... its YOUR fault!

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BEAUFORT, S.C. (CN) - A woman, now paraplegic, sued a Bluffton bar, claiming its bartender didn't check her ID before serving her drinks on the night of the car accident that left her paralyzed.
Chelsea Hess also sued the state Department of Transportation, the town of Bluffton and Beaufort County, alleging they negligently maintained the road shoulder she drove over on Aug. 8, 2009.
Hess was 20 years old that night, and headed with friends to Jock's Sport Grill for drinks and a game of billiards.
She claims that when she ordered a drink at the bar, no one asked to see her identification or sought to determine whether she old enough to buy alcohol: 21 in South Carolina.
"The bartender failed to attempt to ascertain whether or not plaintiff was already impaired by alcohol consumption when she purchased the alcoholic beverage and made sale to plaintiff even though she was unable to legally purchase the alcoholic beverage, and notwithstanding the possibility that she was already impaired by alcohol consumption," according to the complaint.
Hess says she left the bar after 1 a.m. and was driving home when "[the] wheels of the motor vehicle plaintiff was operating suddenly dropped off into a large unmaintained area on the shoulder of Alljoj Road, which caused plaintiff to lose control of her vehicle and causing her to roll the vehicle off the side of the road."
The Island Packet and The Beaufort Gazette newspapers at the time quoted a police spokesperson as saying that Hess drove her 2000 Mitsubishi off the road and then overcorrected.
She was not wearing a seat belt and was thrown about 20 feet from the vehicle, the newspapers reported, citing statements from emergency officials.
Hess suffered numerous serious, debilitating injuries and was left paraplegic.
She seeks actual and punitive damages, for negligence and gross negligence.
In its response to the lawsuit, Schubert Place LLC, operator of Jock's Sport Grill, denied Hess's assertions, arguing that "any injuries sustained by the plaintiff were due to and caused by the intervening and superseding acts of negligence, recklessness, willfulness and gross negligence on the part of third persons over whom this defendant had no control."
The South Carolina Department of Transportation also blamed Hess, saying the accident occurred due to a number of events for which she bore responsibility, including driving while intoxicated, failing to keep her car under proper control, failing to keep a proper lookout, failing to follow the posted speed limit and failing to "act in a reasonable and prudent manner as was required under the circumstance and conditions then and there existing."
Hess is represented by Karl Twenge, with Twenge & Twombley, of Beaufort.
 
underage drinking: illegal
drunk driving: illegal
driving without a seatbelt: illegal

she was 20 years old and made an adult decision to go into a bar knowing that the legal drinking age is 21, bought alcohol, and drove home... all decisions made as an adult.

she claims the bartender did not ID her... what if she was really IDed and she showed a fake ID? pretty common

she then decided to drive home drunk without a seatbelt, crashes, and blames the bar for her adult decisions which resulted in her paraplegia?



what do you guys think?
 
I think her bad decisions caught up with her. Natural selection at work.

Not the bar or bartender's fault.
 
Don't be surprised when the bar's insurance carrier pays its policy limits to settle. Despicable I know. But that's where this society has come to.
 
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Don't places like this typically check ID at the door? If so, why would the bartender check for ID when they would have needed to present ID to enter the establishment? Shame what happened to her but most reasonable people can see she's at fault. Now a business has to defend itself from an absurd claim of liability.
 
The disgusting thing is that both the bar & DOT will probably settle in order to save money.

This is partly why I'm for "loser pays" tort reform. Law firms know that the likelihood of the bar and DOT settling more likely than not. Gives incentive to move forward with this type of case
 
The disgusting thing is that both the bar & DOT will probably settle in order to save money.

This is exactly why she sued in the first place.

10 years from now people will be suing grocery stores for not checking if a customer is allergic to peanuts before selling...
 
Just yuck.
 
LOL well it was a small bar in SC. she drove a Mitsubishi galant probably

so it doesnt surprise me she is taking everyone to court.

dumb mistake she will live with for the rest of her life. sad but atleast no-one else was hurt in the wreck.
 
No worries, our government will take care of her.
 
When something like this happens, the ambulance chasers are all over it. So she's a 20 year old girl in obvious trauma of becoming a paraplegic for the rest of her life... Meaning she will have a real hard time finding work... Looking at huge medical bills... And a slick lawyer looking to take 33% of whatever he can get for her says "oh honey you've got to sue. You need this money for your future" and so she says OK. "Negligent maintenance on road shoulder" is pure lawyer, I really doubt it's from the intelligence of this particular girl.

Is she stupid for drunk driving? Yeah... Not wearing a seatbelt? Yeah... But what's the point of this story? We don't REALLY know the details. It's a typical "news" article, just something to get people irate because this is the kind of story that sells ads. It's no more news than a Kim Kardashian story. Just a different shape of an entertainment cookie.

Perhaps this girl really is a complete selfish irresponsible moron now trying to make a buck... But she will have her day in court and she is paying the price of her stupidity by never walking again. If we are going to be angry that the town will settle and that impacts our pocket, let's blame the system that allows personal injury lawyers do what they do. Not the 20 year old paraplegic girl.
 
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When something like this happens, the ambulance chasers are all over it. So she's a 20 year old girl in obvious trauma of becoming a paraplegic for the rest of her life... Meaning she will have a real hard time finding work... Looking at huge medical bills... And a slick lawyer looking to take 33% of whatever he can get for her says "oh honey you've got to sue. You need this money for your future" and so she says OK. "Negligent maintenance on road shoulder" is pure lawyer, I really doubt it's from the intelligence of this particular girl.

Is she stupid for drunk driving? Yeah... Not wearing a seatbelt? Yeah... But what's the point of this story? We don't REALLY know the details. It's a typical "news" article, just something to get people irate because this is the kind of story that sells ads. It's no more news than a Kim Kardashian story. Just a different shape of an entertainment cookie.

Perhaps this girl really is a complete selfish irresponsible moron now trying to make a buck... But she will have her day in court and she is paying the price of her stupidity by never walking again. If we are going to be angry that the town will settle and that impacts our pocket, let's blame the system that allows personal injury lawyers do what they do. Not the 20 year old paraplegic girl.

+1
I agree 100%
 
When something like this happens, the ambulance chasers are all over it. So she's a 20 year old girl in obvious trauma of becoming a paraplegic for the rest of her life... Meaning she will have a real hard time finding work... Looking at huge medical bills... And a slick lawyer looking to take 33% of whatever he can get for her says "oh honey you've got to sue. You need this money for your future" and so she says OK. "Negligent maintenance on road shoulder" is pure lawyer, I really doubt it's from the intelligence of this particular girl.

Is she stupid for drunk driving? Yeah... Not wearing a seatbelt? Yeah... But what's the point of this story? We don't REALLY know the details. It's a typical "news" article, just something to get people irate because this is the kind of story that sells ads. It's no more news than a Kim Kardashian story. Just a different shape of an entertainment cookie.

Perhaps this girl really is a complete selfish irresponsible moron now trying to make a buck... But she will have her day in court and she is paying the price of her stupidity by never walking again. If we are going to be angry that the town will settle and that impacts our pocket, let's blame the system that allows personal injury lawyers do what they do. Not the 20 year old paraplegic girl.


I do agree with your statement but the girl still had to agree to the suit. If you were in the same situation and some ambulance chaser came to you would you agree to a lawsuit? I know some will say that it's the insurance companies that pay but I'll bet that the bar will go out of business or the bartender will loose his/her job.....taxes will go up because the county that settles is self insured. This is the problem with the United States. We need to fix it NOW!!
 
I do agree with your statement but the girl still had to agree to the suit. If you were in the same situation and some ambulance chaser came to you would you agree to a lawsuit?

It is easy to sit here healthy and employed and say "No way would I ever agree to that lawsuit"

But, it is not just one lawyer that calls, it is many of them.
Picture yourself paralyzed and not knowing how your going to take care of yourself and these guys are calling up and making you feel like you are the victim.
I have a feeling that many peoples perspective would change.

We don't know if she went after the lawsuit on her own or how much convincing was needed, but it does happen.
 
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