Appellate Practice Attorney serving New York, NY
I'm very sorry for your loss.
It may be that the bars could lose their license and/or the servers could possibly serve jail time, but you have no official say in these proceedings. The best you can do is to try to convince the local district attorney, and liquor authority, to proceed against the bars, and to seek the maximum penalties allowed. However the ultimate choice of whether to do so is up to them.
You may have standing to bring a civil suit against the bars, but the sole remedy you could obtain would be money damages, not criminal or quasi-criminal sanctions, like jail time or the revocation of a liquor license.
Answered on Dec 03rd, 2013 at 11:32 AM