What would you do ?

[par6]

I've mentioned this before on here but anyway.
Nearly two years ago I did a wedding where a guest slipped on the dance floor and badly gashed his shin on the alu minimum staging, dance floor and stage both erected and owned by the hotel. The guest susbsequently filed a claim for damages against the hotel and I was contacted by his solicitor, to provide a statement of my take on the "accident"
This was sort of tricked out of me by way of an informal conversation on the phone with the solicitor who at the end of the call said " would it be ok to use what you've just said as evidence, I've written it all down and I'll post it out to you for you to check and sign", he did and I signed and sent it back, heard nothing until yesterday !
Solicitor rings me and asks is it still ok to use your evidence in the case? But know I've had time to think obout it, 2 years !, I got to thinking what's in it for me ? The solicitor will get paid out of the compo payment, the guest will get his cheque, but me, maybe black listed by the hotel and other hotels in the area, so I'll lose out!
Do the right thing, but what is the right thing? As far as I'm concerned the hotel could have done nothing more, the dance floor was awash with drink due to the guest being quite rowdy spraying bottles etc, the mop was used several times but can't be mopped every 5 mins. Was the guest drunk ? Maybe, I don't know.
Personally I'm not a fan of this compensation culture.
What would you do ?
Cheers.

[DeckstarDeluxe]

I've mentioned this before on here but anyway.
Nearly two years ago I did a wedding where a guest slipped on the dance floor and badly gashed his shin on the alu minimum staging, dance floor and stage both erected and owned by the hotel. The guest susbsequently filed a claim for damages against the hotel and I was contacted by his solicitor, to provide a statement of my take on the "accident"
This was sort of tricked out of me by way of an informal conversation on the phone with the solicitor who at the end of the call said " would it be ok to use what you've just said as evidence, I've written it all down and I'll post it out to you for you to check and sign", he did and I signed and sent it back, heard nothing until yesterday !
Solicitor rings me and asks is it still ok to use your evidence in the case? But know I've had time to think obout it, 2 years !, I got to thinking what's in it for me ? The solicitor will get paid out of the compo payment, the guest will get his cheque, but me, maybe black listed by the hotel and other hotels in the area, so I'll lose out!
Do the right thing, but what is the right thing? As far as I'm concerned the hotel could have done nothing more, the dance floor was awash with drink due to the guest being quite rowdy spraying bottles etc, the mop was used several times but can't be mopped every 5 mins. Was the guest drunk ? Maybe, I don't know.
Personally I'm not a fan of this compensation culture.
What would you do ?
Cheers.

Tell the truth. If you generally believe the hotel couldn't of done anymore then say so. It will be argued no doubt that the hotel supplied the floor, stage and the drink which were the factors involved in the accident but that isn't for you to worry about.

[musicologydisco]

Did your statement overall come down on the side of the hotel or the guest? It sounds as if his solicitor found something of benefit to his client somewhere in what you have said. I wonder if he intends taking something you've said out of context?
Are you being asked to appear in court. If not then I would be inclined to decline to let him use what you have said in case he cherry picks to suit him and his client.

[DazzyD]

This is an easy one for me. If the statement was the truth at the time then I'd roll with it. I don't think I'd be happy perjoring myself regardless of the outcome to me. If the hotel couldn't live with my honesty then that's a chance I'd have to take. From my point of view, I'd have given my account of events as I'd seen them. It's up to the judge to decide who is in the right and who is in the wrong. It's also possible a judge could find in favour of the claimant on a sliding scale if the claimant is deemed to have been partly at fault. We took a test case about 18 years against a major employer for an employee who suffered long term injury caused by working practises. The judge found 70% in favour of us and said the company couldn't be 100% liable as the employee also had a duty of care to himself. A rather large payout ensued but it was only 70% of what it could have been.

What you have to remember, though, is that the hotel will be insured through PLI and, from my experience, it would be highly unlikely that the case would get to court anyway. Statistics from the Association of British Insurers show that "in excess of 95% of compensation cases are settled out of court" and that speaks volumes to me (source: TUC).

If the hotel accept any blame whatsoever, their insurers will offer the "victim" what they consider to be a "fair and reasonable offer" on the grounds that if the claimant accepts it all further legal action will be dropped. It's in the insurers own interests to make an attractive offer as, should the case go to court, it's likely that the judge, if finding in the claimant's favour, will award a higher compensation amount including costs, against the defendant and it's the insurer who'll pick up the bill. Also, a court case could be very damaging to the hotel's reputation should they lose. Not many businesses would be prepared to take that risk.

But, as I always say, these are only my personal opinions. It's really up to you what you do as, at the end of the day, it could be your livelihood that's affected.

[super-hero]

If it goes to court, maybe the hotel will try to pin some blame on you. Saying they told you to tell the guests not to drink on the dancefloor.
Just looking at a worst case scenario from your point of view.

I hate this blame culture, where everything has to be somebody else's fault, with a financial payout at the end of it.

Good luck with the whole thing.

[DazzyD]

If it goes to court, maybe the hotel will try to pin some blame on you. Saying they told you to tell the guests not to drink on the dancefloor.
Just looking at a worst case scenario from your point of view.

I hate this blame culture, where everything has to be somebody else's fault, with a financial payout at the end of it.

Good luck with the whole thing.

I can't see this happening. For this to be the case, the hotel would have to PROVE that it was part of your conditions of employment to make these announcements and also have to PROVE that you failed to do so. I believe that we have all have a duty of care but I don't believe that that duty of care extends to the maintenance of the dancefloor UNLESS we had provided said dancefloor as part of the service paid for. We've discussed this scenario before and still don't believe that any judge in the UK would consider that the remit of a DJ is anything more than to provide the music. I don't think DJs can be forced to "police" the dancefloor if it's not expressly written in to his or her contract of employment.

I'm not saying this wouldn't be the case 100%. It would be up to the judge to interpret the law and apply it to the situation. However, in the OP scenario, the DJ is a witness - not a defendant - and that makes a whole world of difference.

[super-hero]

I was just playing devils advocate.

Even as a witness, if he had be asked by the hotel to announce the "no drinks on the dance floor" rule. If he had seen people with drinks on the dance floor, should he have taken any action to remedy this. ie. stop the music until drinks were removed. I have had to do this at a venue in the past at the venues request.

I am not saying the dj is at fault, just looking at ways the hotel could try to shift the blame.

[par6]

The hotel at no time asked me to make an announcement about no drinks etc, it was my decision to call for someone to mop up and several times asked them to keep drinks off the dancefloor, the hotel didn't seem that bothered, they rarely do.
Spoke to the solicitor today and told him he could use my original statement but my involvement with the case ends now, told him I was not a fan of the compo culture and would not appear in court as a witness to which he was quite shocked :muppet: I asked him what was my incentive to give evidence? ....the silence was deafening. Total money grabbing fool, he did say he had several statements off other guests but that mine was the most useful and credible, I said that's probably because I was the only sober one there :rolleyes:

[musicologydisco]

The hotel at no time asked me to make an announcement about no drinks etc, it was my decision to call for someone to mop up and several times asked them to keep drinks off the dancefloor, the hotel didn't seem that bothered, they rarely do.
Spoke to the solicitor today and told him he could use my original statement but my involvement with the case ends now, told him I was not a fan of the compo culture and would not appear in court as a witness to which he was quite shocked :muppet: I asked him what was my incentive to give evidence? ....the silence was deafening. Total money grabbing fool, he did say he had several statements off other guests but that mine was the most useful and credible, I said that's probably because I was the only sober one there :rolleyes:

Unfortunately by saying the hotel didn't seem bothered will actually help this "total money grabbing fool". However it does sound like your evidence would have been helpful to him ("useful and credible") so by refusing to appear in court may well scupper his money grabbing attempts!