Discovery Best Practices in Restaurant and Hotel Cases: Documents, Electronically Stored Information and Depositions

Restaurant and hotel litigation in the United States—whether a slip-and-fall in Manhattan, a foodborne-illness claim at an Orlando resort, or a dram shop action in Miami—turns on robust discovery. Effective preservation, collection, review and deposition strategies reduce exposure, shorten timelines, and materially cut costs. This guide lays out practical, commercially minded discovery best practices for hospitality defendants (and their counsel) operating in U.S. jurisdictions, with specific operational and cost considerations for New York City and South Florida.

Why discovery is different in hospitality cases

Hospitality defendants face concentrated, high-volume sources of discoverable data:

• Point-of-sale (POS) and reservation systems (e.g., Toast, Micros/Oracle)
• CCTV / surveillance video
• Timecards, schedules and payroll systems (e.g., ADP, Kronos/UKG)
• Incident reports, guest communications, and online reviews
• Employee smartphones and messages
  Because these systems generate mixed structured/unstructured ESI, early, targeted preservation and collection are critical to avoid spoliation and costly re-work.

Initial steps: preservation, meet-and-confer, and scope control

1. Send litigation hold/preservation letters immediately: Address corporate counsel, location managers, and IT custodians. Specify systems (POS, CCTV, employee devices) and retention windows. See preservation-focused strategies in Preservation Letters, Spoliation Risks and Evidence Safeguards in Hospitality Litigation.
2. Early meet-and-confer (Rule 26(f)): Narrow custodians, date ranges, and key data sources. Propose sampling protocols, search terms, and a reasonable ESI protocol.
3. Prioritize high-risk evidence:
   • Surveillance video (short retention; high relevance)
   • POS logs and transactional data (timestamped)
   • Incident/guest reports and employee witness statements

Collecting documents and ESI: targeted, defensible workflows

• Custodian interviews: Identify who touched the incident—managers, servers, security staff, housekeeping, and on-site IT. Document interview notes and preserve contemporaneous statements.
• Forensic collection of devices and servers: Image hard drives, export POS logs with metadata, extract CCTV video files with checksums. Maintain chain-of-custody logs.
• Metadata-first approach: Collect native files where possible (Excel, POS exports) to preserve timestamps and audit trails.
• Use proportional sampling and analytics:
  • Apply de-duplication, near-duplication clustering, and early-case assessment to reduce review volume.
  • Consider Technology Assisted Review (TAR) for large hospitality datasets (e.g., massive photo/video or chat logs).

Estimated storage and hosting costs are a meaningful part of discovery budgeting. Cloud storage such as Amazon S3 standard runs about $0.023 per GB-month for the first tiers, which helps model ongoing ESI retention during discovery (see AWS pricing). For hosted eDiscovery tools, vendors vary from pay-as-you-go to enterprise subscriptions—evaluate by projected GB and user counts (see Logikcull pricing for a popular, self-service option).

Sources:

• Logikcull pricing and offerings: https://www.logikcull.com/pricing
• AWS S3 storage pricing (useful for ESI retention cost modeling): https://aws.amazon.com/s3/pricing/

Document types: risk, collection method and cost considerations

Depositions: planning and cost control

Depositions are among the largest controllable discovery expenses. Typical cost drivers:

• Court reporter/transcript fees
• Travel and scheduling for witnesses
• Expert prep and appearance
• Videography and exhibit production

Industry ranges for deposition services (appearance + transcript) vary by market and urgency. Nationwide resources observe transcript per-page pricing and appearance fees that translate into depositions ranging from a few hundred dollars for local, simple appearances to $1,000–$3,000+ for multi-hour, expedited transcript depositions in major markets. See practical cost breakdowns at Nolo and vendor sites such as Veritext for local-service nuances.

Sources:

• Overview of deposition costs: https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/how-much-does-it-cost-to-depose-someone.html
• Veritext services page: https://www.veritext.com/services/

Practical deposition tips for hospitality cases:

• Use focused 30(b)(6) notices sparingly and precisely: Limit to specific topics (POS data fields, CCTV retention policy, cleaning logs) and identify corporate custodians who can testify to those topics.
• Stagger depositions geographically: If defending multiple incidents across Florida (Miami, Orlando) or New York (Manhattan, Brooklyn), consolidate witness availability and consider remote depositions where permitted.
• Prepare staff thoroughly: Run mock depositions, refresh on incident reports, and limit “off-the-cuff” statements. See staff prep strategies at Preparing Staff for Deposition and Trial Testimony: Practical Tips for Hospitality Employers.
• Use written stipulations for frequently disputed facts: E.g., retention policies, data purge schedules, or maintenance logs, to shrink live testimony.

Vendor selection: practical checklist and pricing considerations

When evaluating eDiscovery and deposition vendors, weigh:

• Transparent pricing: flat per-GB, per-user, or subscription models
• Rapid imaging/ingestion for time-sensitive evidence (video)
• Local presence for depositions (e.g., New York City courthouses or Miami-area facilities)
• Security and chain-of-custody practices
• Ability to integrate with your case-management and review workflows

Compare options:

For complex multi-defendant or multi-case matters, coordinate joint-defense agreements and apportion cost-sharing early; see strategies in Managing Multi-Defendant Cases: Apportionment, Contribution and Joint Defense Agreements.

Cost-saving and risk-reduction strategies

• Early privilege logs and clawback agreements to avoid over-production costs.
• Targeted preservation to limit ESI footprint; hold only what’s proportional.
• Use sampling + TAR to reduce full-document review costs.
• Remote depositions to reduce travel and logistics, especially across NYC and Florida markets.
• Bundle discovery services (collection + hosting + review) for vendor discounts on GB pricing.

Closing checklist for hospitality defense teams (NYC & South Florida focus)

• Issue litigation hold immediately and confirm receipt from location managers and IT.
• Prioritize CCTV and POS preservation—document retention windows and collectors.
• Perform custodial interviews and log custodians with potential ESI.
• Propose ESI protocol and meet-and-confer within Rule 26 timelines.
• Evaluate vendor models: SaaS self-service for smaller matters; enterprise solutions for large datasets.
• Prepare staff with mock depositions and limit unsupervised communications.

For broader case strategy integration, coordinate discovery planning with motion/settlement strategy documents such as Motion Practice and Pretrial Tactics That Can Short-Circuit Hospitality Claims and evaluate settlement vs trial tradeoffs in Settlement Strategy vs Trial: Evaluating Risk and Managing Legal Costs in Hospitality Suits.

Effective discovery in restaurant and hotel cases requires a blend of technical ESI know-how, practical cost forecasting, and disciplined witness preparation. For defense teams in high-cost markets like New York City and Miami, early triage of surveillance, POS, and employee-generated ESI—paired with smart vendor selection and deposition planning—yields the best combination of cost control and litigation risk mitigation.