If friends are at a bar and?

an arguement starts and the security guard is standing there and while he is, someone in the other party(party a) hits someone in the other party(party b) over the head with a bottle. It just so happens that someone in party b is underage drinking and also gets hurt while at this establishment. No one is ticketed, police reports are made and the underage person leaves before the cops get there, but his information, name, age, etc. is taken by the mall security where the bar is at.

Can he go to the police admit to being underage and drinking, but also press charges against the person for being hurt? And possibly press charges against the establishment where this happened?

Good question...well as far as i know he could. But since he was underage he would loose one battle and most likely win the aggravated assault. If i were him, which I'm glad i'm not i would not do anything and learn from it.

The underaged person can complain to the police, who may make a report and turn it over to the prosecutor's office. The prosecutor's office decides whether they will file charges against any other person or establishment. It would be unusual for the prosecutor's office to refer the case to the state agency that regulates bars and other drinking establishments. But if that agency had a complaint that underage drinking was allowed, the bar might lose its license.

The underage person can sue in civil court for injuries. The underage person must do this through their parent, legal guardian or other adult with legal standing. The underage person might have a claim against the person who actually struck and/or hurt them.

As for suing the bar, it is true that bars are usually not liable when one bar patron commits a criminal act on another. However, a good lawyer might argue that by allowing underage persons on the premises in violation of the law, the bar should be held to a higher standard and should protect these 'children' from being harmed by drunken adults. Probably wouldn't win, but not a bad start anyway.

Finally, laws are different from state to state. The law of the state where this happened may have special and specific laws that apply to this situation.

There is no private criminal prosecution in the u.s. If he wants to report something to the cops, he is free to do so but the decision of whether to "press charges" is reserved to the cops and the DA, not to the person.
He can elect a private civil suit against anyone for anything, at his own expense but I would note that the bar is not a guarantor of anyone's safety.

Short answer yes. He would probably just get a slap on the wrist if it's his first offense for being under age but the assault charge is a greater charge and a DA would love to win that case over a petty underage drinking charge.

I'd keep my mouth shut if I were him. He would gain nothing by this except his life cause his parents didn't find out. Plus the charges would most likely be dropped cause two wrongs don't make a right.

he most certainly can, but then the police will arrest him for underage drinking..........nice trade off

Let it go, a very unpredictable outcome.

Sure.

I don't know that a drunk under-ager will have much credibility in court though...