Host Liquor Liability Checklist

Ignore this 8-point Host Liquor Liability Checklist at your own risk:

If you use liquor to entertain clients, then read closely. The law states that the consequences of an accident connected with the serving alcoholic beverages may fall on the party that served the alcohol.

So, who does this affect?

Do you serve wine, beer or booze at a:

• Bar?
• Tavern?
• Restaurant?
• Hotel?
• Events?
• Office parties?
• Company-sponsored parties?
• Client meetings?

Wise business owners see the consequences down the road of serving alcohol. Inexperienced business owners must suffer the consequences. How about you? Where do you fit in? By taking a proactive approach to this, you can avoid many headaches later on.

Our suggestion: make alcohol serving training part of your pre-event planning. Empower your employees to do the same and you will save many heartaches.

Same Scenario

A local jury found a restaurant chain liable for a crash caused by an employee that seriously injured a Taiwanese exchange student riding his skateboard. Why the restaurant chain? The employee was accused of having several drinks at a birthday party at the restaurant after his shift ended. The jury awarded the injured student $1.5 million dollars. The lesson? If you’re a responsible employer, don’t give alcohol to your employees if you know they may later drive. We are seeing more and more lawsuits being placed against the employer.

What would you do if you were hit with a $1.5 million dollar lawsuit?

This doesn’t apply ONLY to death and injury lawsuits from car accidents. Businesses have been sued for alcohol-related incidents like:

• Assault
• Slips
• Falls
• Motor vehicle accidents

Here is our alcohol liability checklist for your business:

1. Is heavy drinking an accepted way of entertaining employees & customers in our corporate culture?
2. Do we check MVRs for employee DUI citations?
3. What do we do with employees that have DWI/DUI citations?
4. Do we discuss the frequency of parties and convention type events we host?
5. Does our company have a substance abuse program?
6. Do we have any formal expense reimbursement rules for alcohol for our employees?
7. If we serve alcohol do we check age with proof of ID?
8. If we serve alcohol have we trained our employees how deny alcohol to our patrons?

So, what are the costs associated with setting up controls for liquor liability?

Yes, there is a cost associated with setting up controls. On the other hand, there are even bigger costs to not setting up controls. Imagine being hit with a 42 million dollar suit for serving alcohol to minors. The cost to you is:

• Money awarded
• Reputation loss
• Valued customers
• Valued employees

Take the time to use this checklist as a start to protecting your business from liquor liability.