This is a supplement to the training materials presented in the Affordable Alcohol Training Responsible Beverage Service Education Program and must be reviewed. 

Illinois’s Governing Liquor Authority

Illinois’s Governing Liquor Authority:

• The State of Illinois’s governing liquor authority is the Illinois Liquor Control Commission referred to as the ILCC.
• The phone number for the ILCC is: 312-814-2206.
• The website for the ILCC is: http://www.state.il.us/lcc/default.htm.

• Illinois’s Legislature is the body responsible for enacting the state’s alcohol laws.

• Responsible alcohol service training is voluntary throughout most of the state. However, the city of Chicago requires mandatory training of all managers.  The city of Schaumburg requires mandatory training of bartenders.  Additionally, bartenders must renew their licenses annually.
• Approved training programs, organizations and instructors must have a BASSET license in order to teach a responsible alcohol service training course. BASSET stands for: Beverage Alcohol Sellers & Servers Education & Training.
• Posting of the following alcohol warning sign is required by all licensees holding a retail permit:

o         A Government Warning: According to the Surgeon General, Women should not Drink Alcoholic Beverages During Pregnancy Because of the Risk of Birth Defects.

Liquor License and Alcohol Beverage Laws for the State of Illinois

Illinois’s ILCC requires:

• Licensees to uphold all the liquor laws for the state of Illinois.

• Licensees to also be knowledgeable of and abide by any local ordinances as well.

Under Illinois’s Happy Hour laws, licensees are prohibited from:

• Serving more than one drink at any given time to a customer. An exception is made for product sampling.
• Offering single-priced, unlimited service drink specials. An exception may be made for a private function.
• Increasing the amount of alcohol in a drink or size of the drink without increasing the price of the drink.
• Promoting or advertising drinking games on the premises of the licensed establishment.
• Awarding alcohol as a prize for any game.
• Offering reduced-price drinks to promote consumption of alcohol.
• Offering a reduced price drink during a portion of the day and then offering the same drink for a higher price the rest of the day.

Under Illinois’s Happy Hour laws, licensees are allowed to:

• Offer free food at any given time.
• Offer free entertainment at any given time.
• Offer a meal package that includes alcoholic drinks.
• Offer a hotel package that includes alcoholic drinks.
• Serve alcoholic drinks through room service to guests renting a room at a hotel.
• Negotiate for alcoholic drinks to be included in a contract between a hotel or multi-use establishment and another party for the purposes of a convention, trade show, meeting or other function.
• Sell and serve pitchers, buckets, carafes or bottles of alcohol to 2 or more people at one time if it is common to serve that particular alcohol in such a manner.
• Increase the cost of a drink to cover the cost of or part of the cost of special entertainment that is not normally scheduled.

Under Illinois’s Happy Hour laws, all licensees are required to:

• Maintain a schedule of all drink prices charged for drinks consumed anywhere on the licensed premises.

Illinois’s BASSET Program

Under Illinois’s law, approved training programs, organizations and instructors must have a BASSET license in order to teach a responsible alcohol service training course. BASSET stands for: Beverage Alcohol Sellers & Servers Education & Training. Licensees who wish to offer in-house training for employees must also apply for a BASSET license. To qualify, licensees must:

• Submit an application to the ILCC along with the $250.00 fee.
• Schedule the training to be at least 6 hours in length. The training can be broken up into different time periods but the applicant must show how the time periods will be broken down per topic on the application.
• Submit a copy of the pre-test and the post-test that will be given to employees along with the application.
• Submit a list of all instructors to the ILCC.
• Submit a training class roster to the ILCC within 10 days from the date that the training class was held. Roster must include:

o        Date of the class.

o        Location of the class.

o        Name, address, telephone number and date of birth for each participant of the class.

o        Name of the instructor along with any company affiliation.

o        Date when each individual participant completed the training course.

o        If the training course was off-premises instruction only.

• Provide a certificate to all employees who successfully passed the training course and tests.
• Maintain a complete record for at least one year of all participants who successfully completed the training.
• Submit to the ILCC a semi-annual report showing:

o        The total number of participants trained.

o        The total number of BASSET courses scheduled.

o        The total number of BASSET courses completed.

o        The location of each BASSET course.

o        The total of all fees charged per BASSET course.

o        The total number of businesses that the participants were affiliated with as well as the counties where those businesses are located.

Under the BASSET program, all participants who successfully completed a BASSET training program:

• Will receive an Illinois BASSET card.
• Will be required to have their BASSET card in their possession at all times when selling or serving alcohol.

Identification

Under Illinois’s laws:

·         A licensee may accept any ID that has been issued by a federal, state, county or municipal government, subdivision or agency.

·         Acceptable forms of identification include:

• Drivers License
• State ID Card
• Passport
• Military ID
• Registration Certificate issued under the Federal Selective Service Act

·         Confiscating an ID that is believed to be false is allowed. Once an ID is confiscated, the ID should be handed over to local law enforcement. Licensees are encouraged to contact local law enforcement to deal with the situation if they do not feel comfortable handling it themselves.

·         Confiscating false IDs is not officially regulated at the state level.

Illinois’s Laws Regarding Age

 Under Illinois law:

• A person must be at least 21 years old to purchase and consume alcohol.
• It is illegal to sell or serve alcohol to a minor.
• Minors may be allowed onto the premises of a licensed establishment if the sale of alcohol is not the primary business. Local ordinances should be consulted.
• The legal age to serve, pour or sell alcohol is set at 18 years of age at the state level. However, local ordinances should be consulted as they may set a higher minimum age.

Dram Shop Laws for the State of Illinois

Dram Shop Liability:

• A licensee and/or an employee can be held liable for serving a minor or an intoxicated person who then causes injury or damage to others or to themselves.
• Extensive liability may result, as there aren’t any limits placed on the amount of damages that may be awarded.

ADDENDUM:  ILLINOIS’S DRAM SHOP LAW

(235 ILCS 5/6 21) (from Ch. 43, par. 135)

Sec. 6 21.

(a) Every person who is injured within this State, in person or property, by any intoxicated person has a right of action in his or her own name, severally or jointly, against any person, licensed under the laws of this State or of any other state to sell alcoholic liquor, who, by selling or giving alcoholic liquor, within or without the territorial limits of this State, causes the intoxication of such person.

Any person at least 21 years of age who pays for a hotel or motel room or facility knowing that the room or facility is to be used by any person under 21 years of age for the unlawful consumption of alcoholic liquors and such consumption causes the intoxication of the person under 21 years of age, shall be liable to any person who is injured in person or property by the intoxicated person under 21 years of age.

Any person owning, renting, leasing or permitting the occupation of any building or premises with knowledge that alcoholic liquors are to be sold therein, or who having leased the same for other purposes, shall knowingly permit therein the sale of any alcoholic liquors that have caused the intoxication of any person, shall be liable, severally or jointly, with the person selling or giving the liquors. However, if such building or premises belong to a minor or other person under guardianship the guardian of such person shall be held liable instead of the ward. A married woman has the same right to bring the action and to control it and the amount recovered as an unmarried woman. All damages recovered by a minor under this Act shall be paid either to the minor, or to his or her parent, guardian or next friend as the court shall direct. The unlawful sale or gift of alcoholic liquor works a forfeiture of all rights of the lessee or tenant under any lease or contract of rent upon the premises where the unlawful sale or gift takes place.

All actions for damages under this Act may be by any appropriate action in the circuit court. An action shall lie for injuries to either means of support or loss of society, but not both, caused by an intoxicated person or in consequence of the intoxication of any person resulting as hereinabove set out. "Loss of society" means the mutual benefits that each family member receives from the other’s continued existence, including love, affection, care, attention, companionship, comfort, guidance, and protection. "Family" includes spouse, children, parents, brothers, and sisters. The action, if the person from whom support or society was furnished is living, shall be brought by any person injured in means of support or society in his or her name for his or her benefit and the benefit of all other persons injured in means of support or society. However, any person claiming to be injured in means of support or society and not included in any action brought hereunder may join by motion made within the times herein provided for bringing such action or the personal representative of the deceased person from whom such support or society was furnished may so join.

In every such action the jury shall determine the amount of damages to be recovered without regard to and with no special instructions as to the dollar limits on recovery imposed by this Section. The amount recovered in every such action is for the exclusive benefit of the person injured in loss of support or society and shall be distributed to such persons in the proportions determined by the verdict rendered or judgment entered in the action. If the right of action is settled by agreement with the personal representative of a deceased person from whom support or society was furnished, the court having jurisdiction of the estate of the deceased person shall distribute the amount of the settlement to the person injured in loss of support or society in the proportion, as determined by the court, that the percentage of dependency of each such person upon the deceased person bears to the sum of the percentages of dependency of all such persons upon the deceased person.

For all causes of action involving persons injured, killed, or incurring property damage before September 12, 1985, in no event shall the judgment or recovery under this Act for injury to the person or to the property of any person as hereinabove set out exceed $15,000, and recovery under this Act for loss of means of support resulting from the death or injury of any person, as hereinabove set out, shall not exceed $20,000. For all causes of action involving persons injured, killed, or incurring property damage after September 12, 1985 but before July 1, 1998, in no event shall the judgment or recovery for injury to the person or property of any person exceed $30,000 for each person incurring damages, and recovery under this Act for loss of means of support resulting from the death or injury of any person shall not exceed $40,000. For all causes of action involving persons injured, killed, or incurring property damage on or after July 1, 1998, in no event shall the judgment or recovery for injury to the person or property of any person exceed $45,000 for each person incurring damages, and recovery under this Act for either loss of means of support or loss of society resulting from the death or injury of any person shall not exceed $55,000. Beginning in 1999, every January 20, these liability limits shall automatically be increased or decreased, as applicable, by a percentage equal to the percentage change in the consumer price index u during the preceding 12-month calendar year. "Consumer price index u" means the index published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the United States Department of Labor that measures the average change in prices of goods and services purchased by all urban consumers, United States city average, all items, 1982 84 = 100. The new amount resulting from each annual adjustment shall be determined by the Comptroller and made available to the chief judge of each judicial circuit. The liability limits at the time at which damages subject to such limits are awarded by final judgment or settlement shall be utilized by the courts. Nothing in this Section bars any person from making separate claims which, in the aggregate, exceed any one limit where such person incurs more than one type of compensable damage, including personal injury, property damage, and loss to means of support or society. However, all persons claiming loss to means of support or society shall be limited to an aggregate recovery not to exceed the single limitation set forth herein for the death or injury of each person from whom support or society is claimed.

Nothing in this Act shall be construed to confer a cause of action for injuries to the person or property of the intoxicated person himself, nor shall anything in this Act be construed to confer a cause of action for loss of means of support or society on the intoxicated person himself or on any person claiming to be supported by such intoxicated person or claiming the society of such person. In conformance with the rule of statutory construction enunciated in the general Illinois saving provision in Section 4 of "An Act to revise the law in relation to the construction of the statutes", approved March 5, 1874, as amended, no amendment of this Section purporting to abolish or having the effect of abolishing a cause of action shall be applied to invalidate a cause of action accruing before its effective date, irrespective of whether the amendment was passed before or after the effective date of this amendatory Act of 1986.

Each action hereunder shall be barred unless commenced within one year next after the cause of action accrued.

However, a licensed distributor or brewer whose only connection with the furnishing of alcoholic liquor which is alleged to have caused intoxication was the furnishing or maintaining of any apparatus for the dispensing or cooling of beer is not liable under this Section, and if such licensee is named as a defendant, a proper motion to dismiss shall be granted.

(b) Any person licensed under any state or local law to sell alcoholic liquor, whether or not a citizen or resident of this State, who in person or through an agent causes the intoxication, by the sale or gift of alcoholic liquor, of any person who, while intoxicated, causes injury to any person or property in the State of Illinois thereby submits such licensed person, and, if an individual, his or her personal representative, to the jurisdiction of the courts of this State for a cause of action arising under subsection (a) above.

Service of process upon any person who is subject to the jurisdiction of the courts of this State, as provided in this subsection, may be made by personally serving the summons upon the defendant outside this State, as provided in the Code of Civil Procedure, as now or hereafter amended, with the same force and effect as though summons had been personally served within this State.

Only causes of action arising under subsection (a) above may be asserted against a defendant in an action in which jurisdiction over him or her is based upon this subsection.

Nothing herein contained limits or affects the right to serve any process in any other manner now or hereafter provided by law.