#31 Pull The Receipts, Buddy
The first involved a lawsuit against the owner of a Mexican restaurant for not paying his employees and keeping the waiter’s tips. He was just a terrible all-around guy. He created these fake handwritten schedules and payroll records going back years to try and prove that his employees didn’t work enough hours. It was difficult to prove they were fakes, but we managed to trap him during his deposition.
I made the guy go through random bits of his work schedule and asked him to confirm if they were correct. We did a random week in February, March, April… Then we got to May. “So here in early May, you had two servers working every night, one hostess, one bartender, and two cooks?” “Yes.” “And that didn’t fluctuate. You didn’t have a need for extra staff on, say, weekend nights?” “No. It was very steady no matter the day.” “What about this Wednesday? How much staff did you need?” “Just the two servers, my hostess, the bartender, and two cooks. The same as every other night.”
“And if you would indulge me, what date are we looking at?” “May 5th.” “Okay. So it’s your testimony under oath that you had the same staffing needs on May the 5th as you did on May 4th and May 6th.” “Yeah.” Opposing counsel’s head begins to hang while shaking. “So you are comfortable telling the judge you didn’t do extra business on May 5th.” “Yeah. Or June 17th or whatever date you pick. It was always steady.”
“You have no problem walking into court and telling the judge and the jury, under oath, that your Mexican restaurant didn’t need any extra help on May 5th? That these schedules and payroll records you’ve produced are 100% accurate for Cinco de Mayo? You are totally comfortable with doing that?” “Yeah, I… Oh.” The case settled within a week.
Credit: crimsonlaw
