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Get TABC Certified to avoid Criminal Negligence

August 11, 2016
Get TABC Certified

We talk a lot about definitions in our on-site and online TABC certification classes. Definitions like Alcoholic Beverage, Employee, Minor, Intoxication, and Public Intoxication. But one of the most important definitions is that of Criminal Negligence.

According to the TABC, Criminal Negligence is defined as when a person fails to meet a standard level of care that an ordinary person under those conditions would meet. Such as checking IDs, calculating age, refusing to over-serve patrons, and looking for signs of intoxication. In basic terms, Criminal Negligence is when a seller-server fails to do something that an ordinary person would have done if they had been in that same position.

Checking IDs is a prime example. You’d be shocked at the number of seller-servers who end up in jail because they failed to ask for an ID when they should have known better. Another great example is taking the time to actually calculate age from those IDs. Once again, I’ve read too many news articles of seller-servers being thrown in jail even when they asked for an ID. They simply didn’t take the time to calculate age, or they calculated the age incorrectly and sold alcohol to a minor during a sting operation.

Refusing to cut someone off is another example of Criminal Negligence. Refusing to sell more alcohol to customers who you know are intoxicated can be challenging and stressful, but it’s part of your job as a responsible seller-server of alcohol. If you have any reason to believe a customer is intoxicated, or that another alcoholic beverage will push them over the edge into intoxication, then you have an affirmative duty to cut them off. You have no discretion under the law in that situation. You must do what is safe for your customer and right under the law.

If you fail to do these things, that’s what our state law refers to as Criminal Negligence.


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