A hotel incident report might be a couple of paragraphs. The report lists guests, details what happened, names employees who responded, and also records when the management was informed.
The report could raise multiple questions to an attorney. Who was the supervisor of the employees involved in this matter? Was surveillance footage preserved? Did the facility follow its rules? Did the property have earlier interactions that were not recorded in the report.
These issues illustrate why litigation involving hospitality often requires an examination of ordinary business records before witness testimony begins.
Start by reviewing the documents that were created during normal operations.
Documents are kept by hospitality businesses for scheduling, guest services, staff training and security, management and more. They are not created for court proceedings, but they may be used to determine how the hotel operated in an incident.
A Hospitality expert witness may examine staffing schedules, operating procedures, employee training files, security logs, and surveillance recordings to understand the responsibilities assigned to different personnel. For example A written policy could require a manager to respond to an employee’s report of an drunken guest.
In the course of investigating the incident, it is important to determine whether the manager was in charge, if the report was made, and from the evidence what the response was. The goal is to evaluate actual operations rather than assume that written procedures were either observed or not.
There is a need for an independent understanding of the restaurant’s record.
Restaurant investigations are challenging because employees divide their attention among the preparation of beverages, food service customers’ requests, managing the dining area. A restaurant expert witness can provide an explanation of how these responsibilities influence the choices employees make when they serve.
Consider a dining-room incident involving customers who have ordered alcohol at the bar prior to changing tables. The bar receipt might document the first purchase while the transactions in the dining room could show subsequent orders.
However, these documents may not be able to prove what the tableserver was aware of about the prior service. Examining all the information together such as the server’s assignments and times of transactions together with the management’s notes and employee declarations will help clarify the order of events. It is essential to keep distinctions: just because alcohol was bought does not mean that the employees were intoxicated.
Casino Investigations may require different records
Casinos operate beverage programs that can differ substantially from conventional restaurant service. Additional sources of information are complimentary drinks serving mobile cocktails, mobile cocktail servers as well as gaming-floor supervisors.
A Casino expert witness can review beverage staffing assignments, security footage, surveillance reports as well as the rules governing employee communication. If the beverages are offered as a complimentary service traditional sales receipts can be insufficient.
In these situations the investigation may rely on surveillance, employee observation as well as service records and documented procedures. The expert must be able to identify any shortcomings in the evidence, and not just accept an incomplete report.
Keep the Evidence in place before it Becomes Unavailable
One practical concern in hospitality litigation is the protection of time sensitive records. Surveillance systems might keep records for only a short time. Schedules of employees, internal communications and incident documents may be stored in different departments or systems. Attorneys must identify any relevant records early and take the necessary steps to safeguard them.
It depends on what the claim is. For example restaurants may require restaurant and bar records. A resort incident may require event documentation, travel arrangements, or security messages. You can find relevant records through a targeted review, without needing to presume that all departments were involved.
The Paperwork is a Product of the Operational Experience
Preston Rideout has worked in hospitality since 1996, with previous experience in bartending and nightclub management, and multi-unit beverage operations. Rideout Hospitality Consulting is a company he created in the year 2010. He has provided advice to restaurants, resorts and hotel operators across the United States.
His expert witness work includes matters that involve hotels, restaurants resorts, casinos, and restaurants for both defense and plaintiff lawyers. It’s beneficial to have some experience in hospitality management in order to understand documents that seem simple to those who are not experienced in the field.
Staffing schedules, for example you can identify the person who was assigned to work. To determine if those assignments were under adequate supervision is dependent on knowing the model of service for the property and operational conditions.
Clearness in your questions is the initial step to stronger arguments
A thorough review of the expert’s work will assist attorneys in separating the facts that are documented and those that remain unanswered. It will help identify documents that are worth requesting and clarify the terminology used in depositions.
The reason for discrepancies is not always because of an operational issue. There isn’t a single policy that proves the correct procedure was adhered to.
It is important to have an expert’s analysis which demonstrates these distinctions using accepted best practices in the industry and evidence. Attorneys who are preparing for a hospitality lawsuit will benefit from knowing the operations and their employees before conducting an interview with them. This will allow an unbiased review of the events that occurred.