Types of Social Host Liability Laws

Depending on the state, city, or county in which social hosting occurs, the hosting of an underage drinking party could violate three different categories of social host laws.

State Criminal Social Host Laws

In some states, the social host is held criminally liable for committing a misdemeanor, meaning the host could be punished with a monetary fine and/or up to one year in jail. As of January 1, 2006, there were 20 states with state criminal social host laws. For more information, visit the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism’s Alcohol Policy Information System at http://alcoholpolicy.niaaa.nih.gov/socialhost.

State Civil Social Host Laws

In some states, there is civil social host liability, which means a social host may be found liable for negligence in a private lawsuit brought by someone injured by a guest allowed to drink on the host’s private property. Civil liability pertains to statutory law and/or state court decision.

City or County Municipal Ordinances

At the local level, cities and counties have at least three options for implementing social host laws:

• Infraction. Some municipalities treat social host liability as a criminal matter, but the penalty is, at most, an infraction that carries with it a monetary fine rather than jail time.
• Misdemeanor. Some municipalities treat social host liability as a misdemeanor, in the same way some states do, carrying possible jail time as a penalty.
• Response Costs Recovery Ordinances. Some municipalities have enacted response costs recovery ordinances. Under these ordinances, offenders face no criminal penalties—no criminal monetary fines or jail time--at all. Instead, these laws declare an underage drinking party on private property a public nuisance, which threatens the public health, safety and general welfare. These ordinances hold persons who own lease or otherwise control the property on which an out of control party occurs (e.g., parents, landowners, tenants, and the party hosts) civilly responsible for the costs of police, fire, or other emergency response services associated with responding multiple times to the location of an underage drinking party.