Tis The Season: How To Protect Yourself Against Personal Injury Claims Resulting From Your Parties
Tis the season of merriment. If you're in the festive spirit, it's time to start planning your parties. While holiday parties can be a great way to get together with friends and family, it can also be a great way to find yourself at the wrong end of a personal injury case. The last thing you want to do is end the holiday season with a summons to court. The best way to do that is to take precautionary measures to keep your guests safe at your parties. Here are two steps you can take to protect your guest from injuries, and yourself from personal injury claims.
Inspect Your Furnishings
Whether you're going to be using your own furniture, or you're going to be renting some additional tables and chairs, it's important that you inspect everything before the guests arrive. A broken chair can result in an accident that can lead to injuries. Unfortunately, if a damaged chair breaks, causing injuries to one of your guests, you could be held liable for those injuries, especially if you could have prevented the accident with a quick inspection. Take a few minutes to make sure that your furniture is free of defects that could cause accidents and injuries. It's also a good idea to inspect any ceiling fans and hanging light fixtures you might have. Make sure they don't pose a danger to your guests. For instance, check for loose fittings, and fixtures that are low enough that tall guests could strike their heads on them.
Control the Alcohol
If you're going to be serving alcohol at your parties, make sure you take appropriate measures to control the flow. If your guests leave drunk and cause an accident, you could be held liable if you didn't take measures to control the amount of alcohol your guests were consuming. One way to prevent over-drinking is to have a cash bar instead of serving free drinks. If guests have to pay for their own drinks, they'll be less-inclined to over-indulge. Another way is to hand out drink vouchers to each guest. Once their designated allotment of vouchers is used up, they'll be cut off from future drinks. It's also a good idea to have each guest deposit their car keys in a lock box. That way, if they try to leave while they're clearly intoxicated, you can keep their keys, and call a taxi for them instead. It's also a good idea to always serve food when serving alcohol.
If you're going to be hosting holiday parties this year, take the steps provided above to prevent accidents and injuries. If you are sued for personal injuries as a result of one of your parties, be sure to contact an attorney, like Katz Nowinski PC , as soon as possible.
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