The best protection against liability lawsuits is to not serve alcohol to visibly intoxicated persons or to minors. For additional protection, you should keep a daily record of events. Do not rely solely on your memory to help you. An excellent tool to accomplish this is the Incident Documentation Form. The Incident Documentation Form can provide a defense in the event a lawsuit is filed. Incident Documentation Form [PDF form will open in a new window]
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What kind of incidents should be documented?
Note: The form should be completed immediately by the employee who was involved in the incident.
When completing the form, be sure to:
- Only include the facts and not your opinion.
- Write detailed statements which include the date, time and any witnesses to the event.
- List any reasonable efforts made to prevent the situation.
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What are some reasonable efforts you can make?
Daily, consistent entries, even when there are no problems, demonstrate responsible business practices. A daily record provides other valuable business information, such as customer trends, requests or complaints, employee relations and more. This can be a useful tool in improving the business.
Be sure to ask where your establishment’s Incident Documentation Forms can be found, under what circumstances they should be completed and where they are to be filed.
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