If a drunk driver hit you or someone you love in Valparaiso, Indiana law lets you pursue a civil claim against that driver, separate from whatever the State of Indiana does with the criminal OWI case. Custy Law Firm | Accident & Injury Lawyers represents the injured party in that civil claim, not the driver, and this page walks through how it actually works: the insurance fight, the deadline you are working against, and who besides the driver might owe you something. It picks up where our Valparaiso car accident page leaves off, because a drunk driving crash raises questions a routine collision does not.

Why Do Valparaiso Families Call Custy Law Firm | Accident & Injury Lawyers After a Drunk Driving Crash?

Families call us because someone needs to stand between them and the insurance company while they are still managing a hospital bill and missed paychecks. Brian Custy, who leads this practice, studied law here in Valparaiso, graduating from Valparaiso University School of Law in 2006 magna cum laude and in the top ten of his class. In 2016 he attended the Gerry Spence Trial Lawyers College, a program built to train lawyers who represent people rather than insurance companies. That is the side of this fight he has spent his career on, and it is the side your claim needs. His work here sits alongside our statewide drunk driving practice, so a Valparaiso claim gets the same approach we bring anywhere in Indiana.

How Common Are Alcohol-Impaired Crashes in Porter County?

Alcohol-impaired crashes are common enough in Porter County that you are not dealing with a rare event. In 2024, Porter County recorded 125 alcohol-impaired collisions, 3.0% of the county’s 4,188 total collisions, and the 10th-highest collision total among Indiana’s 92 counties. That comes from Indiana Crash Facts 2024, published by the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute with the Indiana University Public Policy Institute. The report defines an alcohol-impaired collision as one “when at least one vehicle driver involved has a BAC test result at or above 0.08 g/dL.” Only 1 of those 125 collisions was fatal, 4.5% of the county’s 22 fatal collisions that year. These are collisions, not deaths and not arrests.

Statewide, alcohol-impaired crashes caused 10.0% of Indiana’s fatal collisions in 2024, out of 3,492 alcohol-impaired collisions and 83 fatalities. Porter County’s fatal share sits below that state average, even though the county sees a meaningful number of these crashes every year. At the city level, the newest published breakout is 2023, when the City of Valparaiso recorded 25 alcohol-impaired collisions out of 582 total, 4.3%, per Indiana County Profiles 2023. No 2024 city-level figure has been published yet.

Where Is a Valparaiso Drunk Driving Claim Filed, and How Long Do You Have?

A Porter County drunk driving injury claim is a civil tort case. Porter County’s Local Rule 3000.15 assigns civil tort cases on an even, random and rotating basis among Superior Court 1, Superior Court 2 and Superior Court 5. All three sit in Valparaiso, the county seat. You do not choose the courtroom; the assignment happens automatically once the case is filed.

Indiana gives you two years to file. Under IC 34-11-2-4(a), an action for injury to person or character “must be commenced within two (2) years after the cause of action accrues.” If the crash was fatal, that same two-year window applies to a wrongful death claim under IC 34-23-1-1. The personal representative of the person who died brings that claim, not the family directly. Two years sounds generous until medical treatment, records, and an insurance company’s own timeline eat into it, which is why we recommend calling (219) 286-7361 before you assume you have time to spare.

Can a Bar or a Private Host Be Held Responsible?

Sometimes, yes. Indiana’s dram shop statute, IC 7.1-5-10-15.5, allows a civil claim against whoever furnished the alcohol. That requires proof the furnisher “had actual knowledge that the person to whom the alcoholic beverage was furnished was visibly intoxicated at the time the alcoholic beverage was furnished.” It also requires proof that intoxication “was a proximate cause” of your injury. The statute defines furnish broadly, to “barter, deliver, sell, exchange, provide, or give away,” so it can reach a private social host serving drinks at home, not only a licensed bar or restaurant. Proving actual knowledge takes evidence: receipts, witness accounts, sometimes surveillance footage, gathered before it disappears.

Does the Driver’s OWI Case Cover What You Lost?

Not on its own, and that surprises a lot of clients. A criminal restitution order does not bar you from pursuing your own civil action. Under IC 35-50-5-3(e), restitution covers property damage, medical costs incurred before sentencing, lost earnings and funeral costs. It has no category for pain and suffering.

The two cases also move on different timelines, and the driver’s conviction can help yours. Under IC 34-39-3-1, a final judgment of guilt for a crime punishable by more than one year in prison is admissible in your civil case to prove any fact essential to that judgment. A misdemeanor OWI carries no more than one year and does not qualify. A felony OWI does. Serious bodily injury is charged as a Level 5 felony, a death as a Level 4, and a Level 5 carries between one and six years.

Indiana also allows punitive damages in some cases, though they are never automatic and never come simply from naming a drunk driver as the defendant. Under IC 34-51-3-2, you must prove every fact supporting them by clear and convincing evidence, a higher standard than an ordinary injury claim. If awarded, IC 34-51-3-4 caps them at the greater of three times your compensatory damages or $50,000. IC 34-51-3-6(c) then sends 25% of that award to you and the remaining 75% to the state’s violent crime victims compensation fund.

What Happens If the Drunk Driver’s Insurance Runs Out?

The drunk driver’s own insurance is not always the end of the story. One of our $1M+ results came from a van wreck involving an alleged tire detread alongside an intoxicated driver, where more than one policy and more than one at-fault party were in play. The same logic applies to a more straightforward drunk driving crash: your own coverage often becomes part of the claim.

Comparative Fault and Seat Belt Evidence

Indiana follows a comparative fault rule. Under IC 34-51-2-6(a), you are barred from recovering only if your own fault is greater than the combined fault of everyone else involved. Below that line, IC 34-51-2-5 simply reduces your award in proportion to your share of the fault. A seat belt can enter that calculation too. For crashes on or after June 30, 2024, IC 9-19-10-7(c) allows evidence of seat belt non-use to be admitted “as to mitigation of damages” for a plaintiff aged 15 or older. That is a change from the older rule, which kept that evidence out of a case entirely. If your crash happened before that date, the older rule still applies.

Underinsured Motorist Coverage

Indiana insurers must make underinsured motorist coverage available in limits of at least $50,000 unless you rejected it in writing, under IC 27-7-5-2(a). Indiana only requires drivers to carry $25,000 per person, $50,000 per accident and $25,000 in property coverage under IC 9-25-4-5, which is often not enough after a serious crash. If you carry underinsured motorist coverage, your own insurer stands in for the gap between what the drunk driver’s policy pays and what your claim is worth. The same coverage typically comes into play if the driver fled the scene; if that happened to you, our page on hit-and-run claims covers it in more detail.

Frequently Asked Questions About Valparaiso Drunk Driving Claims

How long do I have to file a Valparaiso drunk driving claim?

Indiana gives you two years from the date of the crash to file an injury claim, and the same two-year window applies to a wrongful death claim. Evidence and medical records take time to gather, so contacting us early leaves more room to act before that deadline.

Do I still have a case if the drunk driver already pleaded guilty?

Yes, and a guilty plea to a felony OWI can strengthen your civil claim: a conviction for a crime punishable by more than a year is admissible in your case to prove facts the conviction already established. A misdemeanor conviction does not carry that same weight, so what the driver was charged with matters to your claim.

Can I recover if I was partly at fault for the crash?

Possibly. Under Indiana’s comparative fault rule, you can still recover as long as your share of the fault is not greater than everyone else’s combined, though your award is reduced in proportion to your share. Whether that applies to your crash depends on the specific facts, which is worth discussing before you assume the answer.

What if the drunk driver did not have enough insurance?

Underinsured motorist coverage, which Indiana insurers must offer in limits of at least $50,000 unless you rejected it in writing, can fill that gap. Because Indiana’s minimum liability limits are often lower than what a serious crash actually costs, this is one of the first things worth checking on your own policy.

Can I file a claim against a bar that overserved the driver?

Only if the bar or host had actual knowledge the person was visibly intoxicated when served, and that intoxication was a proximate cause of your crash. Indiana’s dram shop law reaches private hosts as well as licensed bars and restaurants, but actual knowledge has to be shown with evidence, not assumed after the fact.

Will I have to go to court, or does a claim usually settle?

Most drunk driving injury claims resolve through negotiation with the insurance company rather than a trial, though we prepare every case as if it may need one. Filing suit before the two-year deadline preserves that option either way, and for the clients we represent we handle that filing so the decision stays open as long as possible.

Talk to a Valparaiso Drunk Driving Accident Lawyer

If a drunk driver hit you or someone you love in Valparaiso, the insurance company already has a claims adjuster working your file. Custy Law Firm | Accident & Injury Lawyers can review what happened, explain the deadline you are working with, and tell you honestly what your options are before you sign anything. Call (219) 286-7361 or contact us. You can also see how we handle other kinds of crashes in Porter County on our Valparaiso personal injury page.