Q: The customer we are not sure drink in the restaurant or no ?because we don’t have his card information
The customer we are not sure drink in the restaurant or no?because we don’t have his card information,we have insurance,but we don’t have liquor insurance,right now the plaintiff sue to our restaurant. So what can we do ?
A:
If your business has been sued and you do not have insurance coverage, you should hire a civil trial attorney with experience in dram shop cases to represent your business immediately. Normally, you have roughly three weeks from the date that your business was sued to file a written answer to the court. (Technically, it is due on the first Monday following the expiration of 20 days from the date of formal service of process). Assuming your business is a legal entity like an LLC or corporation, you personally cannot represent your business in court unless you are a licensed attorney even if you are an officer, manager, or owner of the business.
Our firm does handle this type of case, although we do not "specialize" per se in dram shop cases. But my partner and I have each handled a few throughout the years. We just finished involvement in one such case where the business owner had exceeded the aggregate limits of his liquor liability coverage for the policy year.
Because you do not have liquor liability insurance coverage, you will be paying your legal expenses out-of-pocket. How much your legal fees will be in total depends on a number of different factors, some of which are within your control and some of which are not. The burden of proof will be on the plaintiff to prove that you or one of your company's workers served the customer alcohol when the customer was obviously intoxicated.
Information about the customer's payment method, time of visit, credit card number if applicable, etc. can be ascertained from the customer through the discovery process. If readily available (for example, the customer has kept and can produce his receipt), the legal expense of obtaining this information will be low. If not, it could require more work and therefore could cost more.
A: This sounds like it might be something for an attorney familiar with dram shop cases to review. Something seems like it might be missing from the facts - they probably don't care about the cost of the drinks. Was there an underlying accident or other incident involving your establishment serving the person alcohol? If so, more detailed review could be needed. Good luck
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