A restaurant receipt shows that a client ordered a number of alcohol-based beverages. After a few hours, the customer is in the middle of a traffic accident. Receipts are crucial for lawyers investigating possible Dram shop liability. But it doesn’t automatically establish whether the restaurant served an intoxicated customer or if employees failed to follow the correct procedures. What transpired between the drink orders might be more important.
Understanding the order of events requires an examination of the alcohol industry as a hospitality service, not just recording the amount of alcohol consumed following an incident.
Receipts record a sale and does not reflect the condition of the buyer.
The records at the point of sale will reveal the date and time transactions took place, which drinks were purchased and the charges put on a bill.
However, a receipt typically does not reveal how a person was behaving when they were served a drink. It is not always possible to establish who drank the drinks, if they were shared or what the bartender saw.
An expert witness with experience can help attorneys interpret these records alongside surveillance footage, employee testimony as well as other evidence. The aim is to reconstruct the entire service process without believing that every purchase is the whole story.
What can employees observe?
The most important issue in alcohol-service disputes concerns whether staff members had reasonable grounds to believe that the client was drunk. Relevant observations could include impairment in coordination, abnormal speech, difficulty maintaining equilibrium, or noticeable behavioral changes.
But these indicators do require context. The actions recorded in video surveillance might not be a result of alcohol. Investigators must also look at camera angles, recording quality, employee positions, and whether the particular behavior could be seen by the employees.
Preston Rideout has experience as an eveningclub manager Bar manager director of operations for bars, and bartender. His background in operation helps connect documented evidence to the responsibilities and practical limitations of employees who work in busy hospitality settings.
Written Training Doesn’t Always Describe Real Practice
The majority of alcohol-related investigations revolve around questions about employee preparation. Was there any training for server-servers who sold the drinks? Did employees be taught to recognize potential signs of alcohol intoxication? Did management explain ways to deny additional service?
These questions are central to Responsible alcohol service service, but reviewing training certificates alone may not answer them.
A venue might maintain detailed policies without consistently implementing them. In the reverse scenario the employee could be following the standards of service, even if it was not a good thing.
A review of the operational aspects includes documents for training, employee testimony monitoring by management, and any actions documented during an incident. Both defense and plaintiff attorneys can benefit from a clear distinction between the presence of the policy and its actual implementation.
Timeline often reveals crucial information
Think about a client being served by multiple bartenders at the same time in a busy time. The bartender who was first on the scene may have observed a common behavior. Following a shift switch the bartender in question may have served a different beverage. A manager might intervene later.
Without reconstructing the timeline, those decisions can appear to be a single act of service. If you are reviewing transaction logs or staffing plans, incidents and surveillance footage it’s helpful to identify who was aware of what, and at what time. It’s better to pinpoint the absence of footage or insufficient records than to rely on speculative speculation.
Industry Practice and Legal Liability Are Different Concerns
Hospitality experts are able to discuss the established operating guidelines of a restaurant and establish whether the conduct of the venue is conforming to these guidelines.
They are not a substitute for the court’s responsibility to determine legal liability. There are laws that differ in every state that govern the legal responsibility of retailers selling alcohol.
Rideout Hospitality Consulting supports plaintiff and defense lawyers throughout the world through case reviews and operational analysis, as well as depositions, written opinions, as well as trial testimony. The work of the company focuses on alcohol-related decision-making, staff training, management techniques, and other pertinent hospitality operations.
The strongest analyses can explain what the evidence does not reveal.
Alcohol-related events can have serious effects, but their seriousness can’t be assessed by all the facts.
The attorney should be aware of the records available, their limitations, and the expectations of employees under the conditions.
A thorough hospitality analysis will discern between documented and the assumed behavior and identify how the practices of the establishment are in line with or differ from established standards. This permits courts to assess what happened instead of relying on only what was later discovered.
