South Carolina is a dangerous place to be hit by a drunk driver, and the state's own crash data says so. In 2023 South Carolina recorded the highest alcohol-impaired-driving fatality rate in the country, 0.68 deaths per 100 million miles driven, nearly double the national rate of 0.38.1 An estimated 413 people, 39 percent of the 1,047 killed on South Carolina roads that year, died in a crash involving a driver at or above the 0.08 legal limit.1 If you or someone in your family was hurt by one of those drivers, state law gives you specific tools, and several of them hit harder against a drunk driver than against an ordinarily careless one.
Here is what actually applies in South Carolina.
The deadline to sue
You generally have three years from the date of the crash to file a personal injury lawsuit. That comes from S.C. Code Ann. Section 15-3-530(5), the three-year limit for "any injury to the person or rights of another."2 Damage to your vehicle runs on the same three-year clock under Section 15-3-530(3) and (4).2
Miss the deadline and the court will almost always dismiss the case no matter how strong it is. The exceptions are narrow. If the injured person was a minor or was legally incapacitated when the crash happened, the clock can pause, but Section 15-3-40 limits that pause: a disability other than infancy can extend the window by no more than five years, and in no case by more than one year after the disability ends.3 Claims against a city, county, or state agency carry their own shorter notice rules under the Tort Claims Act, so those move faster.
How fault is shared
South Carolina follows modified comparative negligence with a 51 percent bar, the rule the state Supreme Court adopted in Nelson v. Concrete Supply Co. in 1991.4 You can recover as long as you were 50 percent or less at fault, and your award drops by your own share. At 51 percent or more, you recover nothing. Juries rarely assign much blame to a sober victim when the other driver was legally drunk, but this rule is why an insurer will still try to pin part of the wreck on you.
Punitive damages have no ceiling against a drunk driver
This is the piece of South Carolina law that matters most in a DUI case. Ordinary punitive damages are capped. Section 15-32-530(A) limits them to the greater of three times your compensatory damages or $500,000, and Section 15-32-530(B) raises that to four times or $2 million when the conduct was driven by financial gain or could be charged as a felony.5
Those caps vanish when the driver was impaired. Section 15-32-530(C) removes the limit entirely if the defendant acted "under the influence of alcohol or drugs ... to the degree that the defendant's judgment is substantially impaired."5 A South Carolina jury can award punitive damages against a drunk driver with no statutory ceiling at all. Punitive damages exist to punish and deter, and driving drunk is the reckless behavior they were built for.
No cap on your actual losses
Your compensatory damages, the money for medical bills, lost income, future care, and pain and suffering, are not capped in a normal crash case. South Carolina's much-cited $350,000 limit on noneconomic damages applies only to medical malpractice under Section 15-32-220, not to car crashes.5 In a serious DUI injury case your recovery is bounded by the evidence and the available insurance, not by a number in a statute.
The bar or restaurant may share the bill
South Carolina has no standalone "dram shop act," but it is illegal to serve alcohol to a person who is already intoxicated. Section 61-4-580 bars selling beer or wine to an intoxicated person, and Section 61-6-2220 does the same for liquor.6 Courts have long let an injured person build a civil claim on those duties when a bar or restaurant over-served the driver who hit them.
That area changed on January 1, 2026. Under 2025 Act No. 42, when a jury finds both the drunk driver and the establishment that served him liable, the establishment's share of joint and several liability is now capped at 50 percent of your actual damages.7 The same act requires anyone serving alcohol for on-premises drinking to finish state-approved server training, at least four hours of it, within 30 days of hire, and it sets liquor-liability insurance floors starting at a $1 million annual aggregate, reducible to $300,000 for venues that adopt certain safeguards.7 These changes apply only to claims that accrue after January 1, 2026.7
Your own insurance is often what pays
Drunk drivers are frequently uninsured or carry only the state minimum. South Carolina's minimum liability limits are $25,000 per person, $50,000 per accident, and $25,000 for property damage under Section 38-77-140.8 A single hospital stay after a bad wreck can burn through $25,000 in a day.
Two of your own coverages fill that gap. Uninsured motorist (UM) coverage is mandatory in South Carolina at the same 25/50/25 minimums under Section 38-77-150, so every policy issued in the state carries at least that much.9 Underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage is not mandatory, but your insurer has to offer it up to your own liability limits, and you can decline it only in writing under Section 38-77-160.9 If you carry UIM, it can stack on top of the drunk driver's policy once his limits run dry.
South Carolina is a traditional at-fault state, not a no-fault state. There is no required personal injury protection; Section 38-77-144 states plainly that no PIP coverage is mandated here.10 Medical payments coverage is an optional add-on, so there is no no-fault filing deadline, but also no automatic pool of money for your bills unless you bought med-pay.
The criminal case is not your compensation
If the driver is charged with DUI under Section 56-5-2930, or with driving with an unlawful alcohol concentration under Section 56-5-2933, that prosecution runs on a separate track from your civil claim.11 A criminal court can order restitution, but it will not make you whole and it is no substitute for a personal injury suit. The two cases carry different burdens of proof, and a guilty plea or conviction in the criminal matter can be strong evidence of fault in yours.
What to do while the trail is fresh
Document the crash. Law enforcement files a report with the state, and you can obtain the official record through the South Carolina crash report process. Photograph the scene and your injuries, keep every medical record and bill, and collect witness names before memories fade. If your car was badly damaged, its resale value may have dropped even after solid repairs, and a separate diminished value claim in South Carolina can recover that loss.
Because the punitive-damage and dram-shop rules turn on specifics like the driver's measured BAC, bar receipts, and service records, DUI cases reward early and careful work. If you decide the claim is worth pursuing, you can find a South Carolina attorney who handles impaired-driving crashes.
This article is general information about South Carolina law, not legal advice. Talk to a licensed South Carolina attorney about your own situation.
Sources
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NHTSA, Traffic Safety Facts, "State Alcohol-Impaired-Driving Estimates: 2023 Data," DOT HS 813 726 (June 2025). https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/813726.pdf
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S.C. Code Ann. Section 15-3-530. https://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t15c003.php
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S.C. Code Ann. Section 15-3-40 (tolling for minority or legal disability). https://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t15c003.php
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Nelson v. Concrete Supply Co., 303 S.C. 243, 399 S.E.2d 783 (S.C. 1991). https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/1265650/nelson-v-concrete-supply-company/
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S.C. Code Ann. Sections 15-32-220 and 15-32-530. https://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t15c032.php
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S.C. Code Ann. Sections 61-4-580 and 61-6-2220. https://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t61c004.php and https://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t61c006.php
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2025 Act No. 42 (H.3430), Tort Reform and Liquor Liability. https://www.scstatehouse.gov/sess126_2025-2026/bills/3430.htm
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S.C. Code Ann. Section 38-77-140. https://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t38c077.php
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S.C. Code Ann. Sections 38-77-150 and 38-77-160. https://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t38c077.php
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S.C. Code Ann. Section 38-77-144. https://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t38c077.php
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S.C. Code Ann. Sections 56-5-2930 and 56-5-2933. https://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t56c005.php