The receipt of a restaurant reveals that a client ordered a number of spirits. This customer was involved in a major car accident a few hours after the incident. If an attorney is investigating possible Dram shop liability the receipt is crucial. It doesn’t necessarily establish whether the establishment served a person who was clearly intoxicated or if the employees failed to follow appropriate procedures. It’s possible that the evidence is more compelling when you consider what happened in between drinks.
In order to understand the pattern, you need to consider the alcohol service as part of a hospitality program. You can’t simply record drinks following an incident.
A receipt is a record of a sale, but not a condition of the purchaser.
The record at the point of sale is used to identify when the transaction took place, what drinks were bought and the charges are allocated to the tab.
The receipt does not reflect what the customer’s actions were when the drink was ordered. It’s often difficult to establish who drank the drinks, if they were shared, or what the bartender observed.
A qualified Expert Witness will assist lawyers in understanding the records as well as surveillance footage, testimony from employees, and any other evidence that is available. The goal is to retrace the entire service process without believing that every purchase is the whole story.
What do employees really observe?
In many disputes regarding alcohol services, the main concern is whether or not the staff had any reason to suspect that a customer was drunk. Some of the signs that could be relevant are speech or coordination issues troubles with balance or modifications in behavior.
However, these indicators need some context. Any single action recorded in surveillance footage could have a reason that isn’t related to alcohol. Investigators must also consider camera angles, recording quality, employee positions, and if the behavior might have been seen by staff members.
Preston Rideout brings experience as a bartender, bar manager, nightclub general manager, and director of bar operations to these evaluations. His practical experience allows him to link recorded evidence to the roles and limitations of employees working in bustling hospitality settings.
Written Training Doesn’t Always Describe Real Practice
In the majority of investigations involving alcohol inquiries, questions are asked regarding the worker’s preparation. Does the establishment provide seller-server training to its employees? Did the establishment instruct its employees on the signs of intoxication? Management explained the procedure for refusing to offer additional services?
Although these questions are crucial to the Responsible Alcohol Service, reviewing only the training certificates may not suffice to answer these questions.
A venue might maintain detailed policies but never implement them consistently. In the reverse scenario an employee might have followed the guidelines even though it was a tragedy.
A thorough review of operational aspects of the policy includes training materials, employee testimonies supervision by management and actions documented during an incident. The difference between a policy’s creation and its implementation could be significant for both the defense and plaintiff lawyers.
Timeline can help answer important information that can answer important
Think about a client being served by multiple bartenders the same time on an evening of high activity. The first bartender may be observing normal behavior. Following a shift change, the bartender in question may have served a different drink. A manager might have intervened afterward.
The decisions could appear to be unending service, when the timeline isn’t recreated. Examining all the information including transaction logs and staffing schedules, as well as surveillance footage and the incident report together can reveal who was in charge and when. It’s much better to discover gaps in the footage or records than to rely on speculation.
Industry Practice and Legal Liability Are Different Concerns
Professionals in hospitality can provide explanations and assess whether a place is operating in accordance with recognized procedures.
They are not a substitute for the legal responsibility of the court to determine the legality of the liability. There are distinct laws in each state concerning the legal responsibility of retailers selling alcohol.
Rideout Hospitality Consulting provides support for defense lawyers and plaintiffs in the United States through case reviews, operational analyses writing opinions trials, depositions and other types of evidence. The company’s work focuses on alcohol-related decisions and staff training, as well as management methods, and other related hospitality operations.
The Most Proven Analysis explains what the Evidence Do Not Support
Alcohol-related incidents can have serious effects, but their seriousness is not determined by all the evidence.
Attorneys need to understand the documents available, the limitations of the records and how employees were expected to work under the circumstances.
An in-depth analysis of hospitality can separate established actions from beliefs and explains where the venue’s practices matched up with or diverged from established standards. This distinction lets courts evaluate the circumstances rather than being based on what was later discovered.