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Close that restaurant and become a lawyer
Conor Cunneen © 2003
You need to have a lot of patience to
be in the foodservice business here in the United States, and also a
large supply of Hedex. The regulatory and legal environment is a
minefield that gives many restaurant owners sleepless nights and keeps
the legal profession in a style to which they have become accustomed –
multi-million dollar pads in Florida and other wonderful places.
Some of the items which are exercising
the minds of the foodservice trade, lawyers and legislators at the
moment include 1) a class action lawsuit filed against McDonald’s who it
is claimed is responsible for causing obesity in children 2) a multiple
law suit filed against up to 2,000 restaurants in California 3) an
increasing trend to ban all smoking in restaurants and bars.
At time of writing, the obesity lawsuit
has been thrown out by U.S. District Judge
Robert Sweet. While the initial reaction is similar to that of
the McDonald’s spokesperson - “We trusted the
court to use its common sense to dismiss this claim. That's exactly what
the judge has done. Common sense has prevailed," - many in the legal
profession believe that this is only round one in this battle,
and already the case must have cost McDonald’s millions of dollars.
One of the key advisors to the
plaintiffs is John Banzhaff who is a major figure in class-action suits
and has had some success in fighting the tobacco lobby. Banzhaff’s view
is that if fast food restaurants warn about the dangers associated with
the small toys they give away, then the restaurants should also issue
similar warnings about the dangers associated with food. One sad aspect
to this case is that one of the plaintiffs is a 15-year-old boy who
apparently weighs 400 pounds! One industry observer suggested the
parents be put on trial not McDonald’s and there are many who might
concur with that logic.
But it is not just the industry giants
who are being sued. Lawyers in California have named up to 2,000
restaurants in a lawsuit that has been described as a “legal shakedown”
by the Civil Justice Association of California. California has a law
that allows lawyers to take action against a business claiming it is
acting “unfairly”. One tactic is to find any minor infringement by the
restaurant against city codes and then “hit” the restaurant for acting
“unfairly”. The lawyers do not have to prove damage; they do not even
have to be working for a client. All they need to do is claim they are
acting in the public interest! These fine upstanding lawyers are
targeting small ethnic restaurants, but are willing to drop the
individual cases against the restaurant if they settle out of court. The
settlement sought is normally about $2,000, which is less than it would
cost to have an attorney plead the case in court.
Attorney Katie Jacobs who represented
auto repair shops who were also targeted says, "They are using (the
law), but they're really pushing it and saying you can't afford to fight
us so pay us and go away”. And you dear reader, lie awake at night
wondering how you can make just one extra coin out of your business each
day. Become a lawyer and help the community!
The proposal by the Irish government to introduce draconian no-smoking
laws in restaurant and bars echoes much of what is happening in the US.
Currently, the states of California and Delaware enforce total bans on
smoking in bars and restaurants. Chicago, Boston and New York are likely
to ban smoking in bars and restaurants shortly.
The impact on business does not seem to be as severe as the doomsayers
suggest. California has a booming bar and restaurant trade which has not
obviously been affected by the smoking ban.
A
number of chef / owners who have voluntarily imposed no smoking bans in
their restaurants also claim that it has no impact on their business.
One restaurant group, which banned smoking 10 years ago, is California
Pizza Kitchen. This chain of 149 restaurants is a leading player in the
premium pizza segment and claims that the decision has had no impact on
business. CPKs customer base though, is quite family oriented and middle
income, which is not a major bastion of smoker’s rights. Restaurants and
bars that are situated in cold winter climes and have a high reliance on
smoking clientele are worried about the impact of further restrictive
legislation. However when you consider that smoking is already banned in
many outdoor sports stadiums in the US, this may well be a battle that
the restaurant and bar trade will not win.
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Conor Cunneen is an internationally acclaimed speaker on strategy,
marketing, leadership and strategy. He speaks on foodservice strategy,
food service growth, profitable foodservice, foodservice trends in
addition to other industries. The author is an award winning humorist
and has won the coveted Chicago Toastmasters Humorous Speaker of the
Year title. He is author of
Why Ireland
Never Invaded America – An Insightful Unique Look at Corporate
Strategy
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