Liquor Liability is Not The Whole Story – South Carolina Needs True Lawsuit Reform

You’ve probably heard the saying: “Winning the battle but losing the war.” That’s exactly what the South Carolina General Assembly risks doing if it narrows its focus to fixing liquor liability problems while leaving the rest of our broken civil liability system untouched. 

Let’s be clear: Liquor liability is a massive and urgent issue. Over the past few years, insurance rates for restaurants, bars, and venues that serve alcohol have skyrocketed, forcing many out of business. Reforming the laws that expose these businesses to extreme financial pressure is a necessary step—but it’s not enough. 

Liquor liability is just one symptom of South Carolina’s deeper problem: a lawsuit-friendly system that makes businesses easy targets for high-dollar payouts (often called “nuclear” verdicts for their ludicrous sizes).  

Yes, alcohol-related liability is complex, involving factors like weak DUI laws, poor server training, and individual behavior (see our graphic here breaking down the tort-alcohol issue). But focusing only on this piece of a much larger issue while ignoring the enormous flaws in our tort system would be a tragic missed opportunity.

The Bigger Tort Problem: Joint and Several Liability

If South Carolina lawmakers stop at liquor liability reform without fixing our broader civil liability laws, they are not delivering real tort reform. A liquor-only bill like H.3497 may help one industry, but it does nothing to stop the predatory lawsuits draining businesses and forcing insurance rates up across the state.

Here’s the problem: Under South Carolina’s modified comparative negligence system, (a form of joint and several liability), a business can be found minimally at fault in a lawsuit but still be forced to pay a majority and even up to 100% of the damages. That’s not just unfair – it’s devastating for employers across industries, from trucking companies to retail stores, who are being targeted, then forced to pay for harm they didn’t cause.

And it’s not just businesses that suffer. Every South Carolina household pays the price. The lawsuit industry effectively imposes a $3,181 “tort tax” on families—driving up costs, killing jobs, and making our state less competitive.

The Solution: Comprehensive Tort Reform

The fix is simple: our weird civil justice construct known as modified comparative negligence (joint and several liability, sort of) has got to go. South Carolina cannot afford to tinker around the edges while leaving the core problem intact. Liquor liability reform is important, and it is going to happen, but it must be part of a much broader effort to restore fairness to our entire legal system.

It is just plain wrong for someone, anyone, to pay for harm they didn’t cause, and it needs to stop. It is not surprising that freedom states like Florida and Tennessee have acted, but Louisiana and West Virginia have as well! Georgia will pass reforms this year. We must step up.

If lawmakers are serious about making South Carolina a better place to do business, they can’t stop at half-measures. They must fix the system comprehensively and once and for all this year.  Political attention spans are often very short. If JSL doesn’t get done this year, the opportunity could very well be lost, and every South Carolinian will suffer, not just our favorite watering holes.