Ep. 002 – Nightclub and Bar Security Civil Liability Part 1
In this week’s show, Robert C. Smith and Manny Marquez discuss the important topic of Nightclub and Bar Civil Liability, a topic that many of us don’t think about until we are in the midst of a lawsuit or litigation.
Just a reminder before listening in – Robert C. Smith and Manny Marquez are NOT attorneys. The information they share in the podcast is general advice and shouldn’t replace specific, state and venue specific legal advice. In the event you need legal advice or help, please a professional in your area.
Liability – What is it and how can it effect you?
Bottom line, liability affects everyone in the nightclub and bar industry – owners, operators, managers, bartenders, bouncers, security, kitchen staff, and everyone in between. If you own a bar or work at a bar, you need to be thinking about civil liability and taking measures to protect yourself. Attorneys, insurance providers, law enforcement professionals, and other stakeholders will also benefit from the important information covered in today’s episode.
Specifically, today’s episode will focus in on:
- What are the different types of liabilities? We’ll discuss criminal, administrative, and civil liability as well as how you can be held liable for both actions you take and actions you didn’t take.
- When do you become liable? Your business is exposed to liability at all times, even when your doors are closed.
- What is the spectrum of liability? From a slip and fall on a lime wedge all the way to a death or shooting.
- What are some examples of law suits that have led to high dollar settlements or judgments? We’ll discuss a lawsuit involving a patron being kicked out, sneaking back in bar, and falling; which resulted in a $200,000 settlement. Additionally, we will talk about a lawsuit involving an intoxicated guest when driving out of club parking lot, hit a club employee. The jury awarded $10 million to family of deceased in this case.
Liability – How Exposed Are You?
In the second part of the episode, we will focus in our your “window of liability” and how to assess how open your “window” is?
Questions covered will include:
- Can you ever close that window of liability completely? No! Learn why.
- What is the concept of “Reasonable Care”? Robert explains things you should do to reasonably protect your patrons and how a court views this concept.
- What is the National Industry Standard? The National Industry Standard is defined by the venues, national chains, industry associations, and legislation.
- What does the phrase “shock the conscious of the court” mean? An act so egregious it shocks the jury of a court.
- What is the life cycle of a typical civil lawsuit? Robert discusses the full cycle of a lawsuit starting with the time of the event all the way until you are presented a lawsuit.
- What is the spectrum of operators? Robert discusses the operators who are doing it right and limiting their exposure, as well as the ones who are overtly negligent and have the highest liability exposure.
- Who is responsible for managing the risk of liability? It is a risk that needs to be managed from the top down and requires a buy-in at all levels of ownership and management. Starting with the top – ownership!
Next week the guys will continue the conversation in Civil Liability Part 2, and discuss what you can start doing today to limit your exposure to liability.
***Reminder – Robert C. Smith and Manny Marquez are not attorneys. This show’s topics are discussed in general terms. We highly recommend seeking and consulting a legal professional.
If you have questions or comments email us at [email protected].
Visit our website at www.nightclubsecuity.com.
Be Nice!
THANK YOU!!!!!! Mr. Robert Smith and Mr. Manny Marquez thanks for the Pod Cast!!! Its great that you took the time to send this to me, so I LISTENED to it and it was a great refresher to the fabulous training program that I sat through for 16 hours and another voluntary 5 1/2 hours when my security staff went through it!! It always shocks me when I go to other bars and see that some of this training never sank in!!! It is sad that our county ran out of funding to supply the training for free, but it is worth paying for to keep everyone safe and educated!!!! Thank you again, and I cant wait for the next Pod Cast!!!
FOR ANYONE WHO READS THIS, GO TO THE TRAINING ITS AWESOME!!!!!
THE TRAINING WILL MAKE YOU THINK A LITTLE DIFFERENT ABOUT GOING ANY WHERE IN PUBLIC!!!! IT WILL OPEN YOUR EYES TO A LOT OF THINGS YOU NEVER THOUGHT OF BEFORE!!!!!!!
Hi Guys
Thank you so much for discussing the subject, duty of care as its is one of the most taken for granted areas of critical operation that safety officers DO NOT pay much attention too.
Duty of care in Australia, similar to America means a persons must be careful that the actions or lack of actions do not cause injury damage harm or loss to a person or property.
To prove that a person breached there duty of care there elements must be proven
1) A person we owed a duty of care
2) That duty was breached by a persons actions or lack of actions
3) It was a reasonably foreseeable situation
If proven in Australia this is called negligence or neglecting your duty of care
The balance of probabilities is 51%
In your story when the patron sued all 3 parties and won there case, in Australia this is called vicarious liability, I’m not sure what they call it in America but the principals is the same.
Any person that owes another person a duty of care can be held liable by the admission or omissions and this extends to any other party that this person represents, (eg company client employer trainer etc)
In relation to lawful force and unlawful force
Lawful force is the application of reasonable force used for criminal and safety compliance control protection or preservation.
Unlawful force or assault is determined as excessive or extreme force used in a incident.as as a result (eg breaching our duty of care, criminal offense, criminal liability, civil suit, civil liability, agent representative, vicarious liability, etc)
The Security courses over here in Melbourne Australia run for 18 days at a cost of between $800-$1,200 per student and the Security training package has.19 units of competency.
I think another topic worth mentioning or discussing in your podcasts is a persons current competency in the industry, which again is taken for granted once they get there security license.
A Security license is only a introduction into the Security Industry, its on going training that must be developed to maintain peoples skills and knowledge.
Great work buys
Cheers
Lee