A receipt from a restaurant shows a customer having a drink or two. The next day, the same customer is in a serious crash. A receipt is important for an attorney who is investigating possible dram shops liability. It’s not necessarily a proof of whether the restaurant served a person who clearly drunk or if employees didn’t follow procedures. What transpired during the time between drinks orders might be more important.
To understand this sequence, it is important to look at the hospitality aspect of alcohol as an operation and not just count beverages at the end of an event.
A receipt records a sale but not the state of a customer
Records at the point of sale can show when transactions took place, what drinks were bought and the costs put on a bill.
A receipt, however, generally will not show how a client was acting at the time they were served a drink. It is not always possible to know who drank the drinks, if they were shared, or what the bartender was watching.
A certified Expert Witness can help attorneys interpret the records and also the video surveillance, witness testimony of employees, and any other evidence available. The objective is to reconstruct the entire service process without believing that every purchase is the whole story.
What can employees observe in reality?
In a number of disputes concerning alcohol service, the most important concern is whether or not the staff was able to establish that a client was drunk. Some of the signs that could be relevant are impaired speech or coordination inability to maintain balance, or alteration in behavior.
These indicators require the context of. One incident recorded on surveillance footage may provide an explanation that is not connected to drinking alcohol. Investigators must also think about camera angles, quality of recording position of employees and whether the particular behavior could be visible to the staff.
Preston Rideout brings experience as a bartender, bar manager, nightclub general manager, and director of bar operations to these evaluations. His experience in operations helps him connect recorded evidence to the obligations and limitations of staff who work in busy areas of hospitality.
Written Training Doesn’t Always Describe Real Practice
Most alcohol-service investigations involve questions regarding preparation for employees. Did there exist any training programs for the servers-sellers? Was the establishment able to instruct its employees on how to recognize intoxication? Did management explain to employees the procedure to deny service?
The answers to these questions could be in the certificates of training, but they are not sufficient.
A facility may maintain specific policies, but fail to consistently implement them. Conversely, employees may have followed the established procedures for service even though the final outcome was devastating.
A look at the operational elements includes documentation for training, testimonies from employees, management oversight and actions that were documented in the event. It is important for both the defense and plaintiffs to discern between the existence of policy and its implementation.
Timeline often sheds light on crucial information
Think about a client being served by multiple bartenders the same time during a busy time. It is possible that the initial employee observed a normal behavior. After a change of shift an employee from another shift could serve a second drink. The manager could have intervened in the future.
Without reconstructing the timeline these decisions may appear to be a single act of service. Retrospectively reviewing documents of transactions, staffing plans video surveillance footage, incident reports together can help clarify who knew what and when. Incomplete or missing footage must be identified, instead of being re-used with speculation.
Lawful Liability and Industry Practice are Different Concerns
Professionals in hospitality can provide explanations and evaluate if a venue follows the established operating guidelines.
The court has the task of determining whether a person is legally responsible. The laws governing alcohol shops differ from state to state as do the conditions under which they may be sued.
Rideout Hospitality Consulting provides support to plaintiffs and defense attorneys in the United States of America through review of cases, operational analysis writing opinions, trial testimony, depositions and other forms of evidence. The company’s work focuses on alcohol-related decisions and staff training, as well as management techniques, and other pertinent hospitality operations.
The Most Proven Analysis explains What the Evidence Do Not Support
A drunken incident could result in devastating consequences, however the severity of the incident cannot establish every earlier fact.
The attorney must understand the records available along with their limitations, as well as the expectations for employees in the conditions.
An in-depth analysis of hospitality can separate the actions that are documented from assumptions and explains where the venue’s practices were in line with or diverged from accepted standards. This distinction permits courts to assess what happened instead of relying on only what was discovered after the fact.
