Downtown Concord and the Route 3 corridor see their share of drunk driving crashes, and being hit by an impaired driver raises a question most victims have never had to think through before: what happens in criminal court, and what happens in civil court, and how are those two processes actually different? 

Criminal DUI Prosecution vs. Your Civil Claim

A DUI arrest starts a criminal case, prosecuted by the State of New Hampshire, not by you. Its purpose is to punish the driver fines, license suspension, and potentially jail time for breaking the law. It does not pay your medical bills, and a conviction is not the same thing as compensation.

Your civil claim is separate. It is filed by you, seeks to compensate you for your medical expenses, lost income, and other losses, and proceeds on its own timeline in Merrimack County Superior Court, regardless of how or whether the criminal case resolves. A DUI conviction can, however, serve as strong evidence of negligence in your civil case.

 

Can I Recover More Because the Driver Was Drunk?

This is more complicated than it might seem. New Hampshire law generally prohibits punitive damages meant purely to punish a defendant in civil cases, with only narrow statutory exceptions. What New Hampshire courts have recognized instead is "enhanced compensatory damages" for cases involving especially aggravated conduct.

Whether drunk driving alone is enough to qualify for enhanced damages has actually been an unsettled question in New Hampshire courts. Some rulings have limited enhanced damages to cases involving additional reckless conduct beyond the intoxication itself for example, also using a phone or driving at a high rate of speed rather than treating impairment alone as automatically qualifying. This is a genuinely contested area of New Hampshire law, and it depends heavily on the specific facts of the crash.

 

Suing the Bar or Restaurant That Served the Driver: Dram Shop Liability

Under New Hampshire's dram shop law (RSA 507-F), a bar, restaurant, or other licensed alcohol vendor can be held civilly liable if it served alcohol to a visibly intoxicated patron, or to a minor, and that service was a proximate cause of the resulting crash. This creates a potential second source of recovery beyond the driver's own insurance policy which matters most when the driver is uninsured, underinsured, or judgment-proof.

Proving a dram shop claim generally means showing the establishment knew, or reasonably should have known, that the patron was already intoxicated when served. Evidence can include receipts showing the volume and timing of drinks served, surveillance footage, and staff or witness accounts of the patron's visible condition before they left.

 

Why Both Claims Are Worth Exploring Early

Evidence for a dram shop claim receipts, footage, staff schedules disappears quickly, often faster than evidence against the driver. A Concord car accident attorney can help identify whether a vendor may share liability, and pursue that evidence, while also building the claim against the driver.

Attorney David E. Buckley has handled New Hampshire injury claims for 30+ years, with a 4.9★ rating from over 250 clients. Call (603) 595-8801 for a free case review. Buckley Law Offices serves clients across Concord and Merrimack County.

 

ARTICLE FAQ


Q: Can I seek punitive damages if I'm hit by a drunk driver in Concord, NH?

A: New Hampshire law generally prohibits punitive damages, with narrow statutory exceptions. Courts have instead recognized 'enhanced compensatory damages' in some aggravated-conduct cases, though whether intoxication alone qualifies versus intoxication combined with other reckless behavior is an unsettled question in New Hampshire law that depends on the specific facts of the crash.

 

Q: Can I sue the bar that served the drunk driver?

A: Potentially, yes. Under New Hampshire's dram shop law (RSA 507-F), an establishment that served alcohol to a visibly intoxicated patron or a minor can be held civilly liable if that service was a proximate cause of the crash.

 

Q: Does the criminal DUI case affect my civil claim?

A: They are separate proceedings. The criminal case is prosecuted by the state and can result in penalties against the driver, but it does not compensate you. A DUI conviction can, however, be used as evidence supporting your civil claim