Most liquor laws are
state that it is an offense to serve and allow individuals to become
intoxicated or to serve individuals who are already intoxicated. In Ontario,
this legislation is old. However, most lawsuits arise because excessive
alcohol consumption relates to the Occupiers’ Liability Act rather than
directly to providing someone with alcohol to excess.
A 1973 Supreme
Court of Canada decision in the case of the Jordan House v. Menow and
Honesberger was pivotal in Canada’s approach to how providers of alcoholic
beverages should deal with an intoxicated person. The court took the position
that commercial establishments owed a duty of care – not just to the intoxicated
person, but also to others they could possibly endanger. This same attitude
applies to non-profits organizations, work-related parties, municipalities and
other social events.
What has become clear through the intervening years is that there are two common
routes plaintiffs take when suing over excessive serving of alcohol. The first
is that someone was served to the point where they were so intoxicated that they
become a danger to themselves or others. The second is to ensure that the
premises used was not reasonably safe to those present – sober or drunk.
Media focus on drinking and driving has drawn attention away from
several other potential problems that arise when people become
intoxicated. These
include:
-
injury and death
from falls or burns.
-
damage to
property from vandalism, falling asleep while smoking, etc.,
-
fighting – due
to perceived provocation or other problems,
-
child or spousal
abuse, and
-
public
intoxication.
These incidents require police resources and often those of Fire and medical
services as well.
A key
strategy in loss prevention and control is to write and implement a
Municipal Alcohol (Risk Management) Policy. Common components of these
policies are:
- Have a written policies
governing alcohol service (whether for sale or gratuitous) that is approved by
municipal council.
- Train your employees on
the policy to ensure they know its contents well and document the name of each
person trained and the date.
- Publicize the policy and
provide a copy to every facility renter to avoid any misunderstanding of your
expectations
- Monitor the type of
activities / events that will be held on municipal property and avoid the
provision of alcohol where potentially dangerous activities will occur.
- Include a safe
transportation plan in the policy that contains means by which drinkers can be
taken home safely (ie. have a direct line to a cab company and encourage
designated driver programs)
- Require all servers to
have recognized training and experience.
- Don’t permit people who
are intoxicated to have additional drinks.
- Require servers to refuse
service to intoxicated guests. Supervisors must support servers’ decisions
- Insist that only plastic
glasses and aluminum cans will be permitted at your facilities to prevent them
being used as weapons during fights.
- Permit the serving of only
regular drinks – no ‘doubles.
- Require that food be
served – it slows the body’s ability to absorb alcohol and slows the rate at
which people drink.
- Insist that a good
selection of non-alcoholic and low-alcohol beverages are provided – discourage
higher-alcohol beers and coolers.
- When guests pay for
drinks, non-alcoholic drinks must be prices at least 30% less than the price
of alcohol-containing drinks.
- For Special Occasion
Permits issued by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission, require that the
licensee (the person who signed the application) be on site during the event.
- All servers and bartenders
must be easily identifiable by a name tag and/or item clothing.
- Servers and bartenders
must never be permitted to arrive to work nor to drink while working.
- Appropriate signs
governing sale of alcohol and permitted activities must be prominently posted
in the venue. (If your venues have regular events with non-English speaking
patrons ensure that signage is in the language being used!)
- Prohibit ‘last call’ to
avoid patrons ‘stocking up’ before the bar closes.
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