The hotel incident reports may comprise only a few sentences. The report names guests who were involved, outlines what happened, names personnel who responded, and records when management was notified.
As an attorney, that report could cause more questions than it can answer. Who was the supervisor of the employees involved in this case? Was surveillance footage preserved? Did the property follow its prescribed procedures? Are there any interactions that occurred prior to the property which were not reported?
This is the reason why it’s often necessary to examine business records before a witness testifies in a lawsuit involving hospitality.
Begin with the Documents that were created during normal operations
The records are maintained by hospitality companies for scheduling guest services, training for staff and security, as well as management and more. Although these documents weren’t necessarily made to aid in lawsuits, they can be used to determine the way a property operated in the event of a specific incident.
A Hospitality expert witness can review staffing schedules and operating procedures, employee education files, security logs, and surveillance records to comprehend the roles assigned to various staff members. As an example one policy may specify that the supervisor must respond when an employee reports an intoxicated client.
The investigation should establish whether the manager was in charge and if a report was sent, and based on the evidence, what was the response. Instead of inferring that procedures were followed or ignored It is more important to assess how the actual operation actually occurred.
Restaurant Records Need Their Own Interpretation
Restaurant investigations can be challenging as employees divide their attention among food service, beverage preparation, customer requests, and managing the dining area. An expert witness for Restaurants will explain how these duties impact the choices that employees make in service.
Consider an incident in the dining room that involves the patron who bought alcohol at the bar prior moving to a seat. The bar receipt may document the initial purchase, whereas the transactions in the dining room could document subsequent orders.
However, those records might not be able to determine the information that the table server had about the earlier service. Reexamining the server’s assignments, transactions times notes from management, employee communications together could help to clarify the process. A distinction must be made that the fact that alcohol was available for sale doesn’t necessarily suggest that employees are aware of the presence of alcohol.
Casino Investigations May require different documents
Casinos operate beverage programs which can be quite different from traditional restaurant services. The inclusion of complimentary drinks, cocktail servers at the casino floor and security personnel are all sources of additional information.
An expert witness from a casino can review beverage staffing, surveillance footage and security reports. They can also look over processes for employee communication. The standard sales receipt may not be true when complimentary drinks are involved.
In such a case the investigation will rely on surveillance data or employee reports, service records, and property’s documented procedures. Experts must identify the limitations of evidence, rather than relying on insufficient data as proof.
Save the evidence until it’s no longer available
Conserving documents with time-sensitive information is an important concern when it comes to litigation that involves hospitality. Recordings from surveillance systems can be saved for a specific duration. Information about employee schedules and internal communication as well as incident documentation may be kept by different departments or by different systems. Attorneys need to identify relevant records earlier and take the necessary steps to secure these records.
It depends on what the claim is. The extent of the investigation will be contingent on the accusations. The targeted reviews will help you determine what records are essential without presuming that every department was involved.
The Paperwork is a result of the Operational Experience
Preston Rideout has worked in hospitality since 1996, with experience in bartending, nightclub management, and multi-unit beverage operations. Through Rideout Hospitality Consulting, established in 2010 he has advised hotel, restaurant, and resort operators throughout the United States and internationally.
His work as an expert witness includes matters that involve hotels, restaurants resorts, casinos and hotels for defense and plaintiff attorneys. His operational knowledge is helpful when interpreting records that may appear simple to someone unfamiliar with hospitality management.
Staffing schedules, for example, identify who has been given the task. To determine if the assignments were proper you must know the service model of the facility as well as its operating conditions.
Clarity in the questions is the first step in a more convincing argument
Early expert review assists attorneys differentiate between unresolved and documented problems. It will help identify documents that are worthy of requesting and help clarify the operational terminology used in depositions.
Some discrepancies are not indicative of an operational failure. Neither is every policy that proves the correct procedure was followed.
Expert analysis in hospitality is beneficial in demonstrating these distinctions using relevant evidence and well-known practices. When lawyers prepare a hospitality case, understanding the company prior to questioning its employees can lead to clearer, more accurate investigation of what actually happened.
