WFAA in Dallas recently reached out to Michael Lyons about the lawsuit filed by the widow of an off-duty police detective killed by a drunk driver.
According to the lawsuit the driver that killed Detective Alejandro Cervantes in November 2021 had been served eight double vodka cocktails in less than three hours by an unlicensed bartender, who was being supervised by an unlicensed manager, at the Fuzzy’s Taco Shop in Lake Worth.
“There is an important public function to making sure these bars police themselves,” said Lyons, adding bartenders and owners can avoid liability if the staff has Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission certification. The absence of that “eliminates the safe harbor defense.”
“While that is absolutely negligent behavior, more egregious is that the restaurant had its employees obtain their TABC server’s certificates three days after the accident that took this man’s life.”
Although Lyons is not involved in this case, he and the other attorneys of Lyons & Simmons regularly represent clients in catastrophic personal injury and wrongful death cases.
