Will lawmakers move on liquor liability reform?

Update 5/8/2025: In the final week of session, lawmakers reached an compromise on joint and several liability as it relates to liquor liability. The agreement focuses solely on liquor liability reform like SCPC recommended, aiming to provide direct relief to an industry in turmoil. This legislation is a great start—but that’s what it is: a start. More work remains.

With just six days remaining in the first year of the 2025–26 legislative session, S.C. lawmakers still haven’t reached consensus on civil liability reform. On the House side, in March representatives passed H.3497, a bill aimed at making liquor liability reforms but didn’t propose significant changes in the state’s civil liability system. 

Last week, the Senate took up the House’s proposal, removed its language, and inserted the full text of Its civil-liability-reform S.244. 

In early April, the Senate passed an amended S.244, which more broadly addresses the state’s liability system. The bill would move South Carolina away from its current modified joint-and-several liability model toward a pure several-liability system, though not entirely. Under a pure several-liability system, defendants are responsible only for the damages that they directly caused. 

This debate is happening as bars and restaurants across the state approach a critical deadline to renew their liquor-liability insurance policies. Whether lawmakers act or not will have serious implications. Small businesses could be forced to continue paying high premiums while hoping that relief comes later through legislative reform. Others could close permanently, as noted in recent media reports. 

 S.244 (now also inserted into the House bill) is a comprehensive proposal. It touches on multiple civil liability areas, including liquor liability, construction defects, medical malpractice, and insurance regulation. Before senators sent S.244 and its version of H.3497 to the House, they made several amendments to the proposals. 

Here are the key changes: 

General civil liability law changes 

• A defendant who is more than 50% at fault can be held jointly-and-severally liable for all of a plaintiff's economic damages, such as lost wages, medical bills and property loss. However, non-economic damages (pain and suffering) would be apportioned based on fault. 

• The initial version of the Senate bill allowed for non-parties to be considered when assigning fault percentages on a verdict form. The final version still allows this, but only for non-parties who previously have settled. It also establishes a process for introducing nonparties at trial. 

• Defendants may seek to add other responsible parties to the verdict form within 180 days of the case being filed. However, setoffs from settling non-parties are available only if those parties are dropped from the verdict form. Generally, setoffs reduce a defendant’s share of a verdict award. 

Liquor liability provisions 

• Eliminates the so-called “1% rule,” which allowed bars and restaurants to be held jointly-and-severally liable for all damages even if their fault was below 50%. 

• The bill adds a new tier of administrative penalties for bars and restaurants that serve visibly drunk patrons and would require a SLED-approved “digital forensic identification system” to identify patrons between 12 a.m. and 4 a.m. 

• Mandates Department of Revenue-approved alcohol-server training. If a bar or restaurant failed to complete the training, its license can be suspended or revoked. 

• Reduces the required liquor liability insurance for bars and restaurants. Previously, a $1 million policy was required; the amended version lowers that to $500,000. For nonprofits, the minimum liability coverage will be $300,000. 

Automotive insurance, med-mal and building tort 

• The current bills double minimum-mandatory automobile liability insurance coverage amounts for property damage/injury from $25K (property damage)/$25K (injury to one person)/$50K (injury to two or more persons) to $50K/$50K/$100K. 

• These changes to automotive insurance mandatory minimums would undoubtably place a burden on South Carolinians. However, the minimums have not increased in over a decade and have fallen well behind inflation. That said, rather than have this increase go into effect immediately, which likely would cause many motorists’ insurance premiums to skyrocket overnight, a phased approach to implementation would help avoid unduly burdensome rate spikes and provide time for adjustment.   

• Regarding medical malpractice, the bills specifically define what a “single occurrence” is under the Tort Claims Act and raises the overall award cap for all plaintiffs from $600K to $1M; and in med-mal cases at public hospitals/health care facilities, from $1M to $2M. 

• The bill expands the period to bring lawsuits in defective building cases (statute of repose) from eight years to 10 years. 

What comes next? 

These are some of the most significant changes in S. 244 and H. 3497. As the first year of the 2025–26 legislative session comes to a close, lawmakers have a narrow window to deliver meaningful relief to South Carolina’s small businesses. With liquor-liability insurance renewals fast approaching, inaction could force many local businesses to close their doors or continue absorbing unsustainable premium costs. 

 If the two chambers are unable to reach agreement on the full scope of the legislation, they should prioritize and advance the provisions addressing liquor liability, specifically those tied to joint-and-several liability. 

 SCPC urges the House to advance a targeted solution to the liquor liability crisis. As we noted in our initial analysis of S.244, other issues in the bill, including automobile insurance, medical malpractice, and construction defects, are also worthy of thoughtful reform. However, those areas do not carry the same immediate consequences as the ongoing liquor liability crisis, which is already driving up costs, shrinking coverage options, and threatening the survival of South Carolina’s hospitality sector.  

Lawmakers must act now to resolve this urgent problem. If you are interested in supporting the call for liquor liability reform, click here to sign our petition.