We went though this at the HIVE. It's more an issue of your local liability rules. Where we live, if you serve someone alcohol, you're partially responsible for their actions afterwards.
For example, there was a couple here that went to a restaurant, had a few drinks, went to a bar, had a few more drinks then went to a different bar and had three more drinks. They drove drunk afterwards and caused a major accident causing significant property damage. They successfully sued all three establishments for $1 million each for serving them and not ensuring that they were not driving. I'm not saying these individuals are not complete douce bags but I tell this story to illustrate that the liability lies partially with the person serving alcohol. So, in the case of self - serve alcohol, you could get in a lot of trouble AND you have no way of validating how much they had. Eg. Someone could leave the coworking space with the self serve keg (we used to have one before I started running the place) without actually having touched any booze, go drink their face off at a bar, do something similar to the couple I mentioned above and then come after the coworking space saying that you guys served them alcohol without checking to make sure they were okay to drive. They don't need to prove that they drank at your space - it's your word against theirs because you're not controlling their access to alcohol. In our jurisdiction, the way we get around this is BYOB. If someone serves themselves alcohol and does something stupid, no one is liable except themselves. Hope that helps. We did a lot of research into this because we were thinking about getting a beer vending machine. _______________ Aaron Cruikshank Principal, CRUIKSHANK Phone: 778.908.4560 email: [email protected] web: cruikshank.me twitter: @cruikshank book a meeting: doodle.com/cruikshank linkedin: linkedin.com/in/cruikshank On Feb 25, 2015 7:24 AM, "Jensen Yancey" <[email protected]> wrote: > Hey Everyone, > > Quick question for those of you with a little more experience with the > law. I know lots of coworking offices will stock the fridge with beer or > have a keg on site, but I'm trying to figure out if this is something > that's actually legal to do or if it's just a law that isn't really > enforced. My understanding is that it's legal as long as anyone who's over > 21 could walk in off the street and ask for a beer. Is that correct? > > -- > Visit this forum on the web at http://discuss.coworking.com > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Coworking" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- Visit this forum on the web at http://discuss.coworking.com --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
