Restaurants may be a great place for people to go and eat with friends and family and enjoy a great menu. But they can also be a hotbed for possible lawsuits and costly legal battles. From sharp corners to contaminated food to unsavory acts committed by someone on staff, there are plenty of things a customer can do to turn around and bring allegations against a restaurant and its owner. Just think about how many slip and fall cases there are every year (about 25,000), which can pave the way for costly financial setbacks for a restaurant.
So, what can a restaurant do when allegations are brought against them? One thing is have the right hospitality insurance in place, such as restaurant insurance, to provide financial safeguarding in the event of allegations. But there are more steps to take to make sure to not lose your cool and keep everything above water.
When someone first brings claims against a restaurant, emotions can run high. If something is unexpected, it can catch an owner off-guard, possibly leading to emotionally driven mistakes and miscommunications. It’s important to keep calm and carry on through something like this and consult legal representation as well as contacting the right restaurant insurance representative. Lashing out with emotions can land an owner in more trouble.
Besides keeping calm, the next thing that owners should do is speak with their lawyer and restaurant insurance representative. It’s important to even keep conversation about the topic away from staff and trusted friends. Anything that is said can be turned around in a lawsuit.
Owners have what’s called an affirmative obligation to ensure that no potential evidence is lost or destroyed. It’s important for those being sued to maintain the integrity of everything from electronically stored information, physical evidence and other documents. It can reflect poorly on a client if any part of their documents are tampered with in any way as this may look like they’re trying to hide evidence.
When it comes to obtaining legal counsel, time is of the essence. Every court in the United States imposes deadlines, and every defendant has a limited amount of time to respond to a lawsuit. A defendant has between 20 or 30 days to respond to being sued and if they miss that deadline a default judgement could be entered.
At RMS Hospitality Group, our expertly crafted policies are written specifically for the hospitality industry. We offer custom tailored solutions to meet any venue’s specific needs. For more information, contact our knowledgeable experts today at (888) 359-8390.
At RMS and associated firms, business continues as usual. Our staff is remote-capable and available to handle all partners, brokers, and insureds at the present time.
