Many people will be celebrating the Halloween holiday this weekend, and if you’re hoping to host some friends or family for a spooky bash, you want to ensure everyone has a fun and safe night. Unfortunately, Halloween weekend always sees an uptick in crime and arrests, so it’s imperative that you take some steps to make sure your get-together doesn’t go off the rails. Below, we share some tips for avoiding legal trouble at your Halloween party.
Halloween Party Legal Tips
When Halloween parties get out of hand, there is usually alcohol involved, so you want to be mindful about some of the ways you can help to ensure that alcohol doesn’t cause problems at your event. Some ways to do that include:
Encourage Safe Ways To Get Home – Let people know ahead of time that alcohol will be available and that they should plan ahead if they want to indulge. Let them know where to park their cars if they’ll be sleeping over or taking an Uber back home. Encourage ride sharing if you suspect that any of your guests are too intoxicated to drive.
Skip The Halloween Punch – It’s a lot easier for people to monitor their alcohol intake if they are drinking beer, wine or a measured cocktail. Skip the mixed punch or allow guests to pour their own glass so that they don’t accidentally end up consuming more than they planned.
Don’t Allow Underage Drinking – Don’t be a party to underage drinking. Some parents have the mindset that if their children are going to drink, they’d rather it be done under their roof. Even if you don’t give them express permission to drink, if you’re hosting a party and not providing reasonable oversight into the actions of minors, you can be held responsible if they get behind the wheel and injure themselves or someone else. Don’t let teens have easy access to alcohol at your Halloween party, because you can end up in jail for their actions.
Have Events And Activities – If there’s nothing to do but socialize and drink, that’s what people are going to do, and the drinking can get out of control. Instead, plan some events and activities to make the evening more fun and provide other outlets of entertainment for your guests. Prepare some Halloween trivia, have a costume contest or stroll around the neighborhood looking at decorations. Find something for your guests to do other than drink.
Know That Police Have Extra Enforcement – Finally, sometimes all it takes is a little knowledge that police will be out in added force to help people make the right decision. Police will be out throughout the holiday weekend and Halloween to help keep the public and children safe, so this is a terrible weekend to try to get away with driving infractions. You’re much more likely to get caught speeding, rolling a stop sign or driving drunk this weekend, so keep that in mind and let your guests know if it looks like they may be heading down a dangerous path.
We hope you have a great Halloween weekend, and if you or any of your guests run into trouble, make sure their first call is to Avery and the team at Appelman Law Firm. Give our team a call today at (952) 224-2277.
