The short answer

Yes, you can sue the bar that served a drunk driver in Illinois. Section 6-21 of the Liquor Control Act, known as the Dram Shop Act (235 ILCS 5/6-21), gives every person “injured within this State, in person or property, by any intoxicated person” a right of action against a licensed seller who, “by selling or giving alcoholic liquor,” caused that person’s intoxication.

That claim sits alongside your claim against the driver. It has its own rules, and two of them catch people out: a one-year deadline and a cap on what the bar can be made to pay.

The problem is common. The Illinois Department of Public Health’s December 2025 report on alcohol use found that in 2022, 32 percent of fatal crashes in Illinois involved a driver with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08 or higher.

Who the Dram Shop Act lets you sue

• Any licensed seller. That covers bars, restaurants, liquor stores and other license holders. The Illinois pattern jury instructions on the Dram Shop Act (IPI 150.00) note that charitable organizations selling liquor are liable too.
• The landlord. Anyone who owns or leases the building “with knowledge that alcoholic liquors are to be sold therein” is liable “severally or jointly” with the seller.
• A bar across the state line. The seller can be “licensed under the laws of this State or of any other state,” and the sale can happen “within or without the territorial limits of this State.” What matters is that you were injured in Illinois.
• More than one bar. If the driver drank at two places and both caused the intoxication, both can be liable, according to IPI 150.00.
• An adult who pays for a room for underage drinking. Anyone 21 or older who pays for a hotel or motel room knowing it will be used by people under 21 to drink is liable to anyone the intoxicated minor injures.

The claim runs against the business, not the bartender as an individual. IPI 150.02 asks whether “the defendant, his agents or servants” sold or gave the liquor, so a sale by the staff is the business’s sale.

What you have to prove

Under IPI 150.02, an injured person proves five things:

1. The driver was intoxicated at the time of the crash.
2. The defendant, or its agents or servants, sold or gave the driver liquor that the driver drank.
3. That liquor caused the driver’s intoxication.
4. The intoxication was at least one cause of the crash.
5. You were injured, or your property was damaged, as a result.

Notice what is missing. Nothing on that list asks whether the bartender should have cut the driver off, whether the driver looked drunk, or whether the bar was careless. IPI 150.00 explains that the Illinois Supreme Court, in Nelson v. Araiza (1978), held that the Act is not based on negligence. “Intoxicated” has a plain meaning in IPI 150.15: drinking impaired the driver’s mental or physical faculties “so as to diminish his ability to think and act with ordinary care.”

The fight is usually over the third element. IPI 150.00 says the bar’s liquor must be “a material and substantial factor” in the intoxication and that “there is no liability for providing a de minimus amount.” The same commentary records a case, Mohr v. Jilg (1992), where two 12-ounce cans of beer sold immediately before the collision were enough. Timing, quantity and receipts decide it.

How much a bar can be made to pay in 2026

The Act caps recovery and adjusts the caps every January 20 for inflation. The Illinois Liquor Control Commission publishes the 2026 dram shop liability limits set by the Comptroller. For final judgments or settlements awarded on or after January 20, 2026:

• $90,411.55 for injury to the person or property of each person who suffers damages.
• $110,503.00 for loss of means of support or loss of society resulting from the death or injury of any person.

Four rules decide how those numbers work in practice:

• Each type of loss has its own cap. The statute lets one person make separate claims that “in the aggregate, exceed any one limit” where they suffer more than one type of loss, such as personal injury and property damage.
• Family members choose support or society, not both. “Family” means a spouse, children, parents, brothers and sisters, and all of them share one capped recovery for the person who was hurt or killed.
• Two bars do not double the cap. IPI 150.00 says that when more than one dram shop is liable, the limits apply to them “as a group,” so the caps cannot be “stacked.”
• The jury never hears the number. The jury decides your full damages “with no special instructions as to the dollar limits,” and the court applies the limit in force when the judgment or settlement is awarded.

The bar claim and the driver claim side by side

Why bother with a capped claim? Because the driver’s insurance is often small. Illinois requires only $25,000 of liability coverage for injury to one person under 625 ILCS 5/7-203. In a serious crash, a second source of up to $90,411.55, alongside your own uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, can change the outcome.

The one-year deadline is the trap

The statute is blunt: “Each action hereunder shall be barred unless commenced within one year next after the cause of action accrued.” IPI 150.00 adds two points that matter in a drunk driving case.

• It does not pause for children. The dram shop limitation “is not tolled for injuries to minors,” so a child hurt in the crash has the same one year.
• It does not wait for the criminal case. In Bradford v. Soto (1987), the deadline was not extended even though the driver refused to answer questions while criminal charges were pending.

The claim against the driver follows the two-year rule in 735 ILCS 5/13-202, covered in our post on the Illinois car accident statute of limitations. Families who wait for the DUI prosecution to finish can lose the bar claim without knowing it existed.

Each deadline runs from the crash. Sources: 235 ILCS 5/6-21; 735 ILCS 5/13-202; 740 ILCS 58/5; IPI Civil 150.00.

Defenses the bar will raise

“You were partly at fault”

In a claim against the driver, your share of fault reduces your damages, and above 50% you recover nothing under 735 ILCS 5/2-1116 (see the Illinois 51% fault rule). Against the bar, that argument does not work. IPI 150.00 says contributory negligence “is not a defense in dram shop cases” and that comparative negligence “has not been recognized in a dram shop action.”

“You helped get the driver drunk”

This is the defense that does work, and it is narrow. Under IPI 150.17, the bar must prove you “actively contributed to or procured the intoxication” of the driver. A passenger who bought the driver round after round may be barred. A passenger who simply rode along, or a stranger in another car, is not.

The Act also gives no claim to the intoxicated driver for the driver’s own injuries, or to anyone claiming support or society from the driver. Everyone else the driver hurt, passengers included, can still claim if they did not help cause the intoxication.

What if the driver drank at a party?

The Dram Shop Act regulates the liquor business, so it does not reach social hosts. IPI 150.00 says “social hosts whose guests became intoxicated are not liable under the Act,” and that Illinois “does not recognize a common law action for negligently furnishing alcoholic beverages.”

There is one important exception. Under the Drug or Alcohol Impaired Minor Responsibility Act, 740 ILCS 58/5, an adult 18 or older who “willfully supplies alcoholic liquor” to a person under 18, or willfully lets them drink on property the adult controls, is liable for the injuries the impaired minor causes. That claim has a two-year deadline, and Section 10 allows economic and non-economic damages, attorney’s fees, costs and punitive damages. Under Section 20, it does not apply to a licensed seller that complied with the Liquor Control Act.

What to do this week

• Find out where the driver was drinking. The crash report, the criminal complaint and witnesses often name the bar.
• Move quickly on records. Receipts, card statements, bar tabs and security video show how much was served and when, and businesses do not keep them forever. A lawyer can send a letter asking the bar to preserve them.
• Calendar the one-year date today, and do not wait for the DUI case to end.
• Get medical care and keep every record. Both claims rest on them.
• If someone was killed, identify the spouse, children, parents, brothers and sisters who may have a support or society claim, and read what a wrongful death claim can recover against the driver.

Our checklist on what to do after a car accident in Illinois covers the rest.

Часто задаваемые вопросы

Talk to an Illinois DUI accident lawyer

The bar claim is the one most often lost to time, because nobody looks for it until the criminal case is over.

Lawyer Furqan handles drunk driving injury claims, against the driver and the bar, along with car accident and wrongful death cases for clients across Cook County, including Oak Lawn, Orland Park, Skokie and the surrounding suburbs.

Sources and authorities cited

• Liquor Control Act of 1934 (Dram Shop Act): 235 ILCS 5/6-21
• Illinois Liquor Control Commission: 2026 Dram Shop Liability Limits
• Code of Civil Procedure: 735 ILCS 5/13-202, 5/2-1116
• Drug or Alcohol Impaired Minor Responsibility Act: 740 ILCS 58/5, 58/10, 58/20
• Illinois Vehicle Code: 625 ILCS 5/7-203
• Illinois Pattern Jury Instructions, Civil: 150.00, Dram Shop Act
• Illinois Department of Public Health: IDPH Releases First-Ever Comprehensive Report on Alcohol Use in Illinois (December 15, 2025)

This article is general legal information about Illinois law, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Every claim turns on its own facts. Talk to a lawyer about yours.