Parties and summertime go hand in hand. With this in mind, it’s a great time to make sure you understand the “social host” laws. Social Host laws are designed to prevent against the distribution of alcohol to minors and people who have had too much to drink. These laws apply to “social hosts” who are providing alcohol in a non-commercial setting. Violation of this law can result in criminal and civil charges. Social Host cases are most commonly brought about as a result of a vehicle crash, or other incident involving serious injuries, after a party.

Social host liability is a state policy, and varies by state to state. Before hosting a party, make sure to check your state’s laws. Click here to find out the laws in your state. The only way to completely avoid social host liability is to not serve alcohol at all.

Aside from social host liability, if you are serving alcohol to minors, you will more than likely be facing other charges as well. Distribution of alcohol to minors is illegal in almost every situation. In some states, if a minor is caught serving alcohol to another minor, they may also face charges. And if this happened in a minor’s home, the parents of that child is liable as well.

Be careful when partying this summer. Make sure you know your state’s social host laws and abide by them. Have a fun summer, but make sure it’s a safe one!

This content is offered for educational purposes only and does not represent contractual agreements. The definitions, terms and coverages in a given policy may be different than those suggested here and such policy will be governed by the language contained therein. No warranty or appropriateness for a specific purpose is expressed or implied.

We are living in a very litigious society. These days, people are bringing lawsuits for just about anything. All of your policies, home, auto and watercraft have specific limits of liability. What happens if an accident occurs for which you do not have sufficient liability insurance?Umbrella insurance used to be closely associated with wealthier people. These days it is very important for everyone to have an umbrella policy. Wikipedia defines an umbrella policy as, ” insuring more than one property as opposed to only one…Typically, an umbrella policy  is pure liability coverage over and above the coverage afforded by the regular policy, and is sold in increments of one million dollars. The term umbrella is used because it covers claims of liability from all policies underneath it.” For example, let’s say you have an auto policy with $250,000 in liability limits and a homeowner’s policy with liability limits of $500,000. Those limits are called “the retained limits”.  If you purchased a $1 million umbrella policy, then the umbrella policy would cover the difference between the auto or homeowners policy limit and $1 million.

Historically, umbrella policies have been used by people who have a large amount of assets. However, these days, more and more ordinary people are purchasing umbrella policies as an extra level of protection. Umbrella policies are secondary to your primary auto and homeowner’s policies. What this means is that your umbrella coverage only kicks in when your auto or homeowner’s policy’s limits have been exhausted.

Umbrella policies are generally inexpensive in comparison to the coverage you receive.

Here is some information you will need to take out an Umbrella Policy:

1. Personal Info (name, address, DOB, sex, marital status, years licensed, state  licensed, and occupations of all household drivers).

2. Five year history of violations and accidents for all household drivers.

3. Complete list of all property owned.

4. Current Insurance policy information.

5. Limits of liability you are requesting.