Wheelwright Consultants selected as 'Expert Witness'

Over the past year Wheelwright Consultants has been selected to provide an "expert" opinion in a number of cases where hotel or restaurant guests have been injured.The cases that we have been involved with include: an three cases where a customer sustained a serious burn that resulted in a permanent scar from an overly hot beverage; where a guest was permanently injured when the chair he was sitting in collapsed; an instance where a guest sustained a permanent facial injury when he slipped getting out of the bathtub in a hotel; a situation where an improperly located stage resulted in a guest with an impairment falling off the stage and suffering a serious injury; and a case where the business is alleged to have failed to secure a space where an outside contactor had been working and the guest was severely injured after catching her ankle in a hole on the property. We have also been consulted on in a case where a guest died as a result of choking on food where no one in the business was choke-saver trained. (REMEMBER - In Massachusetts if you have a food license and can seat more than 25 people you must have someone on premises who is choke-saver trained anytime you are serving food!)

Although we can't discuss the specifics of any case, we can state that in each of these cases there were allegations that the hotel or restaurant failed to exercise reasonable care in the maintenance or operation of the business. All of the injuries sustained by the alleged victims were serious resulting in permanent scarring, a permanent disability or death. Even if the hotel or restaurant is ultimately found not to have been at fault, they will sustain serious expenses related to their legal defense and may have a serious negative impact on their reputation and business.

We urge you to check your policies and procedures to make sure your business is safe and your employees know how to respond in case of a guest injury.

Posted: to Latest Wheelwright News on Thu, Sep 10, 2015
Updated: Thu, Sep 10, 2015