The incident report for a hotel may comprise only a few sentences. It includes the name of the guest, a description of the incident and the names of the responding staff.
For an attorney, that report might bring more questions than it provides answers. Who was in charge of supervising the employees? Was surveillance footage preserved? Did the property follow its prescribed procedures? Did the property have earlier interactions that weren’t recorded in the report.
These questions illustrate why it is crucial to review business records of every day use prior to testimony of witnesses in hospitality litigation.
Start with the documents created during normal operations
Hotels and restaurants keep track of schedules, guest service along with security and management. While these records weren’t intended for lawsuits, they can be used to establish how a property functioned during an incident.
An expert witness in Hospitality may examine staffing schedules, operating procedures, employee education files, security logs, and surveillance recordings to understand the responsibilities assigned to different personnel. Written policies may demand that a manager respond to the employee who complains about an intoxicated client.
The investigation should determine if the manager was on duty, whether the report was communicated, and what responses were provided in the evidence. The goal is to evaluate actual operations rather than assume that the written procedure was observed or not.
There is the need for a different interpretation of the restaurant’s records.
The employees are split between the food service, beverage prep, customer requests and dining-room management. This presents a problem for restaurant investigations. An expert witness from a restaurant can clarify the impact of these responsibilities on the choices taken by employees in service.
Consider an incident in the dining room that involves a patron who purchased drinks at the bar prior to moving to a table. The bar receipt will record the order at first, while records for dining rooms will reflect the orders that were later placed.
These records might not show what the server was aware of about the prior service. Reviewing all the data, such as the server’s assignments and times of transactions, along with management notes and employee statements can help to understand the process. One important point to remember is: evidence that alcohol was purchased is not automatically evidence that employees were aware of intoxication.
Casino Investigations Might require a different set of records
Casinos run beverage programs which can be quite different from standard restaurant service. The availability of complimentary drinks and cocktail servers on the gaming floor, and security personnel can provide additional information.
A casino expert witness can review beverage staffing, security reports and surveillance footage. They may also review procedures for employee communication. Traditional sales receipts might not provide a complete account when drinks are provided for free.
In such a case the investigation may rely more on surveillance, employees’ observation, service records and documented procedures. The expert should also be able to identify any weaknesses in the evidence, instead of relying on an insufficient document as evidence of a particular event.
Make sure you keep the evidence until it’s no more available
Documents that have to be saved for time is a significant concern when it comes to litigation that involves hospitality. Recordings from surveillance systems can be retained for a brief period of time. Information about employees’ schedules and internal communications and incident documents are stored by different departments or even systems. Attorneys must locate and secure potentially relevant records as soon as possible.
The necessary scope depends on the allegations. A restaurant complaint may require the bar’s and dining room’s records, while a resort incident could require documentation of the event transport arrangements, as well as security communications. A specific review can help determine what records are important without presuming that every department had any part.
Making sense of paperwork is much easier when you have experience in the field.
Preston Rideout has worked in hospitality since 1996, with experience in bartending, nightclub management, and multi-unit beverage operations. Rideout Hospitality Consulting was established in 2010 and has been providing assistance to hotel, restaurant and resort operators across the United States.
His expert witness work includes matters that involve hotels, restaurants resorts, casinos and hotels for both defense and plaintiff lawyers. It’s useful to have a background in hospitality management to interpret documents that appear simple to those who are not familiar with the business.
A list of staffing plans includes, for instance, the people who were given the task of working. Knowing if the assignments offered appropriate supervision requires knowledge of the model of service for the property and operating conditions.
A Stronger Case Begins With More lucid questions
An early expert review can help attorneys identify unresolved and documented problems. It will help identify documents that are worthy of requesting and help define the terms that is used in depositions.
The reason for discrepancies is not always because of an operational issue. Neither is every procedure that proves that the right procedures were observed.
An expert analysis of hospitality is beneficial when it can explain these distinctions using relevant evidence and practices that are widely accepted by the industry. For attorneys preparing a hospitality case, understanding the operation before questioning its employees can lead to a more focused, credible analysis of what actually transpired.