The receipt of a restaurant reveals that the patron ordered several alcoholic drinks. After a few hours, the customer is involved in a fatal traffic collision. If an attorney is investigating possible liability for dram shops the receipt is crucial. It isn’t a guarantee that the establishment served someone who clearly drunk, or if employees didn’t follow procedures. The most revealing evidence could be what transpired between those drinks ordered.
Understanding the sequence of events requires looking at alcohol service as an actual hospitality service, not just taking note of the number of drinks consumed after an incident.
A Receipt is a proof of sale not a customer’s condition
The record at the point of sale is used to identify when the transaction took place, what beverages were purchased, and what charges are allocated to a tab.
The receipt won’t reveal what the customer’s actions were when the drink was ordered. It is not able to determine who drank each beverage as well as whether drinks were shared, or what the bartender saw.
An experienced Expert Witness can help attorneys interpret these records alongside surveillance footage, employee statements, and other available evidence. The objective is to reconstruct the service sequence without assuming that every purchase is the whole story.
What is the most employees could actually observe?
In a lot of disputes regarding alcohol service, the most important issue is whether staff was able to establish that the customer was drinking. Some of the relevant indicators could be impaired coordination, unusual speaking, difficulty maintaining equilibrium, or any noticeable changes in behavior.
These indicators require contextualization. Even a single act captured in surveillance footage may have an explanation unrelated to alcohol. Investigators should also take into account the camera angle, recording quality location of employees, and the extent to which a particular behaviour was evident to the staff.
Preston Rideout has experience as an eveningclub manager and bar manager director of bar operations, and bartender. His experience in the operational field helps him link documented evidence and the responsibilities of workers in busy hospitality environments.
Written Training Doesn’t Always Describe Real Practice
The majority of alcohol-service investigations are focused on preparation of employees. Does the establishment provide the seller-servers training for its employees? Did the establishment train employees to recognize intoxication potential? Management explained the procedure for refusing to provide any additional services?
Although these questions are essential to the Responsible Alcohol Service, examining only the training certificates may not be enough to address them.
A place may have detailed policies, but fail to consistently implement them. In the other case the employee could be following the standards of service, even though it was a tragedy.
An operational review considers the training materials, employee testimonials, management oversight, and the actions that were documented during the incident. Defense attorneys and plaintiffs can benefit from a clear distinction between the existence of the policy and its actual execution.
Timeline often answers crucial information
Take a look at a customer who gets drinks from different bartenders during the course of a busy evening. The first bartender might have witnessed a normal behavior. Following a shift switch the bartender in question may serve a different drink. Managers could intervened following the shift change.
It is possible to make these choices appear to be one continuous action without reconstructing the time line. When looking through transaction records or staffing plans, incidents and surveillance footage It can be useful to identify who was aware of what, and when. It’s better to know if there are any missing footage or records, instead of guessing.
The issues of liability under the law and the practice of industry are different.
Hospitality professionals can help explain and evaluate if a venue is following recognized operating procedures.
These laws do not replace a court’s ability to determine the legal liability. The laws for liquor shops differ between states, including the circumstances where alcohol suppliers could have to answer civil claims.
Rideout Hospitality Consulting provides support for defense lawyers and plaintiffs throughout the United States via review of cases, operational analysis writing opinions trials, depositions and other forms of evidence. Its services focus on alcohol-related decisions as well as staff training.
The strongest analysis explains what the evidence can’t prove
The severity of an alcohol-related incident is not able to be a conclusive indicator of the previous circumstances.
The attorney must be aware of the documents available as well as their limitations and the expectations for employees in the circumstances.
A thorough hospitality analysis will differentiate documented and preconceived behaviours and show which practices of the place are consistent with or divergent from the norms. This distinction allows courts to determine what happened instead of having to rely on only what was later discovered.