When a drunk driver hits you in Coral Gables, Florida law lets you get three things that you cannot get in a normal car accident. First, you can get punishment money (also called punitive damages). Under Florida law, this must be at least three times the money for your losses, or $500,000, whichever is more. Second, you can sue the bar or restaurant that gave the driver too many drinks (also called dram shop liability). Third, driving under influence automatically establishes the driver's liability, meaning fault is already proven. We do not have to prove they did something wrong. We only need to show how badly you were hurt and what you lost.

CHG Lawyers founding partners are experienced trial lawyers who have handled many DUI cases. They know exactly what the police records show and how to use them to help you. These are not normal car crash cases. The money involved is much higher, and you must act very fast. What we do in the first three days — especially saving video and records from the bar — decides how much money you can get at the end.

Punishment Money — Why DUI Cases in Coral Gables Are Worth More

The Minimum Amount by Law

Florida law (Statute 768.72) allows for punishment money (punitive damages) when a driver acts with total disregard for the safety of others. Florida courts agree that driving with a blood alcohol level of .08 or higher is exactly that. It is a choice to drive a dangerous car while drunk. By law, the minimum punishment money is three times the money for your losses, or $500,000, whichever is more.

How Punishment Money Helps You Get a Better Settlement

The numbers matter, but how it works matters more. Juries in Miami-Dade County are much harder on drunk drivers than on drivers who just made a simple mistake. Every insurance company knows this when they look at a DUI injury case in Coral Gables.

An insurance company can guess how much money they might owe you for medical bills and lost wages. But they cannot guess what a jury will do when a driver chose to drive with a very high alcohol level (.15 BAC) and ran a red light on Ponce de Leon Boulevard. This fear of the unknown gives us leverage. It forces the insurance company to offer a much larger settlement to avoid going to court.

CHG Lawyers gathers all the proof — including the driver's alcohol level, any past DUIs, and proof that they kept drinking even after they were drunk. We send this proof to the insurance company right away to show them the risk of going to trial. We do this to get a higher settlement offer before we ever have to go to court.

Note on past DUIs: A driver who has been caught drinking and driving before shows a pattern of dangerous behavior. If the driver has a past DUI, the punishment money can be much higher, and the insurance company cannot argue that it was just a 'one-time mistake.' CHG Lawyers finds the driver's past record during our first week.

Suing the Bar or Restaurant That Gave the Driver Too Many Drinks

Florida law (Statute 768.125) says that a bar or restaurant can be held responsible if they serve alcohol to a minor or to someone they know is addicted to alcohol. If a bartender on Giralda Avenue keeps serving a drunk customer who then drives and crashes, the bar can be sued too. Bars have business insurance policies that are usually much larger than a driver's personal car insurance.

The 3-Day Window to Save Evidence

Evidence against bars disappears very quickly. Bartenders often leave their jobs within weeks of a crash. Security camera video at bars on Giralda Avenue, Coconut Grove, or the Village of Merrick Park is often deleted automatically after a few days or weeks. Sales receipts that show how many drinks the driver bought can also be lost.

CHG Lawyers sends legal letters to the bars the very same day you hire us. These letters order them to save all video and receipts. We do this before the bar can delete the video or the bartender leaves. Those first 3 days are critical to saving the evidence we need.

Investigating Bars in Coral Gables and Nearby Areas

Many crashes in Coral Gables happen after a driver leaves bars on Giralda Avenue, CocoWalk in Coconut Grove, Sunset Drive in South Miami, or the Village of Merrick Park. We trace the driver's path to find exactly where they were drinking before the crash.

Holding the bar responsible allows us to get money from a business insurance policy, which is much larger than a personal car insurance policy. For example, a restaurant on Giralda Avenue might have a $2,000,000 insurance policy, while the driver might only have a $25,000 policy.

Evidence we save: Receipts showing what drinks the driver bought and when; statements from bartenders and servers about the driver being drunk; security camera videos showing the driver at the bar; and records of past safety violations at the same bar.

Proving Fault — How Driving Intoxicated Establishes Liability

Under Florida law, the act of driving with a blood alcohol level of .08 or higher establishes negligence per se. We do not have to spend time proving they drove carelessly; the illegal act of drunk driving itself establishes fault. This allows us to focus entirely on showing how badly you were hurtand getting you the money you need for your recovery.

How We Use the Police and Court Records

CHG Lawyers watches the driver's criminal case closely from day one. We use the criminal records to help your injury case in three ways:

• 1. Saving arrest files. We immediately get the breath test results, blood test records, police body camera videos, and audio calls from the night of the crash. These files are public records, and we save them to use in your lawsuit.
• 2. Telling your story to the court. We work with the state prosecutor to write a statement about how the crash changed your life. This goes into the criminal record and also shows the insurance company the real damage the driver caused.
• 3. Timing our lawsuit. If the driver pleads guilty or is convicted, they cannot deny that they caused the crash in our injury case. We track the criminal case and time our actions to use this to our advantage.

Do not wait for the police case to end: The 2-year deadline to file your injury case starts on the day of the crash, not when the criminal case ends. Waiting for the criminal court can take years, and you could run out of time. We must run both cases at the same time.

When the Drunk Driver Has Minimum Coverage or No Insurance

Many drunk drivers in Florida carry only the minimum $10,000 of injury insurance, or they have no insurance at all. If you are badly hurt, your bills will be much higher than that. Here is how we find other sources of money to pay for your recovery:

• The bar or restaurant: As explained above, a bar's business insurance is often the largest source of money. A restaurant on Giralda Avenue might have $1,000,000 to $5,000,000 in liability coverage. Finding where the driver drank is key.
• Your own insurance: Your own insurance policy may include "uninsured motorist" (UM) coverage. If the driver who hit you has no insurance, your own insurer has to pay for your injuries up to your policy limit.
• The driver's personal assets: Punishment money is not limited by insurance policies. If the driver has personal money, houses, or businesses, we can go after those assets to pay for your damages.
• Their employer: If the driver was working or driving a company car during the crash, the company can also be sued. Companies have large business insurance policies.

Florida's 2023 Law Change — Who is at Fault

In Florida, if a jury decides you are more than 50% at fault for a crash, you get nothing. Insurance companies always try to blame you to avoid paying. They might claim you were speeding or distracted. We use crash experts and physical proof to defeat their excuses:

• If they say you were speeding: We use physical proof from the road and the cars to show your actual speed. We prove the drunk driver's actions made the crash impossible to avoid, no matter how fast you were going.
• If they say you were distracted: We use reaction time calculations to show you had no time to avoid the crash. When a driver is drunk, their sudden moves leave no time for anyone to react.
• If they say you should have avoided the crash: Because the driver was operating a vehicle while intoxicated, the law says they are automatically at fault. You cannot be blamed for failing to avoid a sudden, dangerous crash caused by a drunk driver.

Why Choose CHG Lawyers for Your Coral Gables DUI Case

• Experienced DUI trial lawyers — our founding partners have handled many DUI cases. We know exactly what police records and breath test documents show, and how to use them to win your lawsuit.
• Investigating the bar from day one — we send letters to the bar immediately to save their video and sales records before they are deleted.
• Demanding punishment money — we demand punishment money in our first letters to the insurance company to force them to offer a higher settlement.
• Checking every source of money — we check the driver's insurance, the bar's insurance, your own policy, the driver's employer, and the driver's personal assets.
• Bilingual and free review — we speak English and Spanish. You do not pay us anything unless we win your case.