They offer coffee or plain water at the end of the evening, and encourage guests to sit for an hour, sober up, and watch late night TV before driving home. Many hosts insist that obviously intoxicated partygoers sleep over. They offer beds, sofas and sleeping bags to guests. Some hotelkeepers in California offer free taxis home or discounted hotel room rates to celebrants at wedding receptions or other galas taking place at hotel ballrooms. So Mr. Fornabai is correct that a low per se standard poses an array of new problems in the courtroom, but in California the law does have the intended effect of changing society s perceptions of what constitutes responsible behavior.
Legislators pass laws with the goal of changing the behavior of ordinary people.
The .08 law in Washington will prove to be a good law if it has an impact upon how people use alcohol and what choices people make in connection with that use. I object to Len Schroeter s argument that taxpayer-funded lawyers should be provided for all civil litigation. Lawyers and everyone else tend to be loyal to the person who pays them, more than to the person supposedly served. No lawyer paid by a court will aggressively challenge the authority of the court. Often, it is government lawyers asking the court to take money or liberty from someone.