An incident report for a hotel may comprise only a few paragraphs. It identifies the guest and describes the disturbance, names the responding employees, and records the time management was notified.

The report is likely to raise more questions for an attorney than it could provide an answer. Who was in charge of supervising the employees? Was surveillance footage preserved? Did the facility follow its established guidelines? Are there any previous interactions that weren’t recorded in the reports?

These questions highlight the reason why hospitality litigation typically requires an examination of ordinary business records before testimony of witnesses begins.

Begin by looking over the documents that were made during normal operation

The hospitality industry produces records for scheduling, training and guest service, security, and administration. Although they weren’t made to aid in litigation, they can help identify how a place operated during a particular incident.

A Hospitality expert witness could examine staffing schedules, operating procedures, employee training files, security logs, and surveillance records to comprehend the duties assigned to different personnel. For example the written policy may call for a supervisor to act when an employee has a complaint about an drunken guest.

The investigation should establish if the manager worked or if the report was submitted, and, based on the evidence, what was the response. Instead of inferring that procedures were adhered to or not The goal is to find out what actually occurred.

There is a need for a separate interpretation of the restaurant’s records.

Restaurant investigations pose challenges since employees have to divide their time between the preparation of beverages, food service, customer requests, and the management of dining rooms. A Restaurant expert witness can discuss how these responsibilities affect the decisions employees take during service.

Imagine a dining room incident that involved customers who have ordered alcohol at the bar before moving to a table. The bar receipt could confirm the initial order while records for dining rooms will reflect the subsequent orders.

Those records may not reveal the server’s knowledge of the previous service. Combining server assignments, transaction time, management notes, and employee records can clarify the sequence. There is a distinction to be made: the fact that alcohol was sold doesn’t automatically indicate that employees were aware of the presence of alcohol.

Casino Investigations May Require Different Records

Casinos offer drink packages that are different from the ones provided by restaurants. The availability of complimentary drinks as well as cocktail servers at the casino floor and security personnel can provide additional information.

A Casino expert witness may review beverage staffing assignments, surveillance footage, security reports, and procedures governing employee communication. If beverages are offered as a complimentary service, the traditional receipts for sales can be incomplete.

In such a case the investigation could rely more heavily upon surveillance or employee reports, service documents, and the property’s documented procedures. The expert should also be able to identify limitations in the evidence rather than treating an incomplete document as evidence of a particular event.

Save the evidence until it is no longer available

A major concern in the hospitality litigation field is the protection of time-sensitive records. Surveillance systems’ records can be retained for a brief period of time. Information about employee schedules and internal communication along with incident-related documentation may be kept by different departments or systems. Attorneys should be able to spot potentially relevant records early and take the appropriate steps to safeguard the records.

It’s dependent on the type of claim. A restaurant complaint may require bar and dining-room records for instance, while a resort event could involve event documentation along with transportation arrangements, and security communications. Targeted reviews help identify the records that are crucial and not assume that all departments are involved.

The process of preparing paperwork is simpler with operational experience

Preston Rideout is a hospitality veteran with over twenty years of experience. He has held positions in management, bartending, as well as beverage operations across multiple divisions. Rideout Hospitality Consulting was established in 2010 and has since provided guidance to hotels, restaurants and resort operators across the United States.

His work as an expert witness includes matters that involve hotels, restaurants, resorts, and casinos for defense and plaintiff counsel. This operational background can be helpful in the interpretation of records that appear simple to someone unfamiliar with the management of hospitality.

A list of staffing plans will, for instance, identify the people who were given the task of working. To determine if these assignments were appropriate, you need to know the service model of the property and its operating conditions.

To build a stronger case Ask more pertinent questions

Early expert review assists attorneys discern between documented and unresolved problems. It can identify records that are worthy of requesting and help define the terms employed in depositions.

Not all discrepancies are indicative of a malfunction. There isn’t a single policy that shows the proper procedures were implemented.

It is the importance of an expert’s assessment that shows the distinctions made by utilizing established industry practices and relevant evidence. Attorneys preparing for a hospitality lawsuit can benefit from a thorough understanding of the operations and their employees before conducting an interview with them. This will allow an unbiased investigation of what happened.