Welcome to June! The month of baseball games, summer picnics, graduation parties and weddings! Can you guess from that list—especially the last two—what coverage issue jumps to mind? That's right: Liquor Liability!

Although there is an increasing awareness of the advantages of either limiting or eliminating alcohol from various previously beer-drenched activities, each of these social occasions is still traditionally a cause for imbibing. Although the personal lines exposure of pure host liquor is a topic for another day, let's consider a key trend in otherwise commercial/business activities: BYOB.

Whether translated as "Bring your own bottle" or the more colorful and likely more accurate "Bring your own booze," the trend is growing steadily, driven by convenience, establishment preference or simply a lack of available—or affordable—liquor licenses. Adding to the potential coverage complexity is that the practice can take a multitude of forms:

• Traditional: Long practiced in the "dry county" areas of the country, customers simply bring their own beer (perhaps in a cooler), wine or liquor (in the traditional brown bag) to the eating establishment. The establishment provides food and nonalcoholic drinks, and those who wish the harder stuff simply serve themselves from their personal stash.
• Hybrid #1: Same as Traditional, except the establishment may provide cups, glasses, mixers or setups for the harder liquor.
• Hybrid #2: Same as #1, except the establishment now offers to take the mixed drinks or brews and serve the rest of the party around the table.
• Hybrid #3: The customer brings in the liquor (typically wine), and delivers it to the designated establishment staffer (the wine steward or waiter). The establishment then serves the wine to the party just as if the wine came from the establishment's own supply.
• Hybrid #4: Any of the above where the establishment charges a fee for the BYOB privilege.

You can easily see how the establishment's potential exposure to liquor liability steadily increases as we move from Traditional to Hybrid #4. With other possible variations being created and practiced, at what point does the establishment—which in all of the variations may describe its process as BYOB—stretch the line of "I'm only hosting, so there is really no need for separate liquor liability" to the breaking point? What will your underwriter say? For those who represent a multitude of carriers, what will each of your potential underwriters say, and how might their opinions differ?