Home / Restaurant Slip and Fall Expert
In the hospitality industry, a polished aesthetic often conflicts with safety. We analyze slip and fall incidents by evaluating the environment against the Standard of Care. This goes beyond the spill itself to determine if the flooring materials, maintenance protocols, and lighting levels met industry safety standards (ANSI/ASTM).
The crux of many premises cases lies in Constructive Notice. We audit ‘Sweep Logs,’ inspection checklists, and video surveillance to determine if the establishment knew or should have known about the hazard. We identify gaps between the documented protocols and the operational reality on the floor.
We also assess environmental contributors often missed in police reports, such as transitions between flooring types, inadequate lighting in walkways, and overcrowding that forces patrons into service paths. We determine if the hazard was open and obvious or a foreseeable trap.
Proving premises liability requires more than just a photograph of a wet floor. We apply forensic analysis to determine if the environment itself violated the Standard of Care.
We evaluate flooring materials and wax/polish history, assessing the Coefficient of Friction against ANSI/NFSI safety standards to determine if the floor was inherently dangerous.
Did the hazard exist long enough to be discovered? We audit “Sweep Logs” and cross-reference video timestamps to prove the staff had ample time to identify and remedy the danger.
Was the hazard “open and obvious”? We analyze illumination levels (photometrics) in walkways and transition areas to determine if poor lighting concealed the defect from the patron.
We compare the venue’s written Spill Response Policy against the actual staff actions captured on surveillance. A failure to follow their own handbook is often strong evidence of negligence.
A ‘clean’ sweep log does not absolve liability if it was filled out blindly at the start of the shift. We scrutinize the gap between the establishment’s safety manual and the actual conduct of the staff. By auditing maintenance requests, shift notes, and video timestamps, we determine if the safety protocols were active practices or just ‘pencil-whipped’ paperwork.
Detecting "pencil-whipped" or pre-filled safety checks.
Measuring the exact time from spill creation to remediation via video.
Was a wet floor sign deployed immediately and correctly?
Identifying long-standing ignored repair orders for flooring/carpets.
Did employees walk past visible hazards without acting?
Secure these critical items to evaluate Constructive Notice and Maintenance Standards.
Request the original “Sweep Logs” or restroom checklists for the entire shift. We analyze handwriting patterns to detect “pencil-whipping” (pre-filling the log) versus actual inspections.
Secure video footage for at least one hour prior to the fall. This is critical to establish Constructive Notice by proving exactly how long the spill or hazard existed before the incident.
Obtain work orders for the past year to prove prior knowledge of leaks or defects. Also, request the SDS sheets for cleaning chemicals to determine if improper products reduced the floor’s slip resistance.
Compare the manager’s Incident Report against the “Spill Response Policy” in the employee handbook. Deviations from their own written safety procedures are often the strongest evidence of negligence.
Our involvement extends beyond the expert report. We partner with legal teams to decipher complex operational evidence, providing the technical clarity needed for summary judgment motions, settlement negotiations, and courtroom advocacy.
Common questions about restaurant expert witness services
We review slip and fall incidents, service-related injuries, food safety issues, crowd management failures, staff negligence claims, and operational liability matters in restaurant environments.
We review slip and fall incidents, service-related injuries, food safety issues, crowd management failures, staff negligence claims, and operational liability matters in restaurant environments.
We review slip and fall incidents, service-related injuries, food safety issues, crowd management failures, staff negligence claims, and operational liability matters in restaurant environments.
We review slip and fall incidents, service-related injuries, food safety issues, crowd management failures, staff negligence claims, and operational liability matters in restaurant environments.
