A restaurant receipt shows that the customer drank several spirits. The next day, the same customer is injured in a fatal accident. An attorney examining potential dram shop liability, the receipt is relevant. It’s not necessarily a proof of whether the restaurant served a person who was clearly drunk, or whether employees were not following the rules. What happened between the drink orders may be more telling.

Understanding that sequence requires examining the alcohol industry as a hospitality process, not just recording the amount of alcohol consumed following an incident.

A receipt records a sale, not the condition of a customer

The point-of-sale record can be used to determine when the transaction took place, what drinks were bought and the charges are allocated to a tab.

A receipt is not able to reveal what the client’s behavior was when served a drink. It is not able to determine the person who consumed each drink or whether the drinks were shared, or even what an employee of the bar observed.

An experienced Expert Witness can help attorneys interpret these records alongside surveillance footage, employee statements, and other available evidence. It is vital to retrace the sequence of service without believing that each purchase will tell the complete story.

What can employees observe?

The most important issue in alcohol-related disputes is whether employees had reason to suspect a patron was intoxicated. The relevant indicators could include impaired coordination, speech that is unusual difficulties, balance issues or observable changes in behavior.

These indicators require the context of. A single act recorded on surveillance footage could provide an explanation that is not connected to alcohol consumption. Investigators also need to consider the quality of the recording, employee positions and camera angles.

Preston Rideout has experience as an eveningclub manager as well as bar manager, director of operations for bars, and bartender. His operational experience helps to connect documentation with the obligations and constraints of employees working in busy hospitality environments.

Written Training Doesn’t Always Describe Real Practice

Most alcohol-service investigations involve inquiries about preparation of employees. Did the establishment provide seller-server training? Did the establishment instruct employees to identify signs of intoxication? Management explained the process for refusing to offer additional services?

These are crucial to responsible alcohol services, however the review of training certificates alone might not answer them.

It is possible for an establishment to have detailed policies, but not be able to consistently follow them. Employees could have followed recognized service practices, even if the end result was tragic.

An operational review considers documents for training, testimony from employees supervision by management, as well as the actions that were recorded during the incident. The difference between the existence of a policy and its actual implementation can be important to both the defense and plaintiff lawyers.

The Timeline often provides the key questions

Imagine a customer who is served by multiple bartenders the same time in a busy night. The first employee might have seen a typical behavior. Another bartender could have served a second drink after an alteration in shift. The manager may have intervened.

It is possible to make these decisions appear to be a single continuous action without retracing the time line. By examining all the relevant information, including transaction records and staffing schedules as well as surveillance footage and an incident report together, can clarify who was aware of what and when. Missing footage or incomplete records are also to be noted instead of being re-used with speculation.

The legal liability issues and industry practice are different.

Hospitality professionals can discuss accepted operating procedures and assess whether the conduct of a place was in line to them.

These laws don’t replace the court’s power to decide the legal liability. The laws governing alcohol shops vary from state to state as do the rules within which they may be legally sued.

Rideout Hospitality Consulting assists plaintiff and defendant lawyers across the country with reviews of cases, analyses of operations, writing opinions, and depositions. The work of the company includes alcohol-related decisions, staff training management practices, as well as any other hospitality-related operations that are relevant.

The most thorough analysis clarifies what the evidence cannot show

The effects of alcohol-related accidents can have severe effects, but their seriousness cannot be determined based on all the facts.

Attorneys need to understand the documents available, the limits of those records, and how employees were expected to perform under the circumstances.

A careful hospitality analysis separates the actions that are documented from assumptions and provides a clear explanation of where the hotel’s policies matched or differed from established standards. The courts will then be able to judge the events in question rather than relying solely on what they learnt later.