In more and more UK cities, we are finding that the local authorities are insisting on most licensed trade premises having door staff. Go back to the late 80’s and early 90’s and it was only nightclubs or rough pubs that needed this. Nowadays, the local council sees this as a away of preventing under age drinking and trouble. The nicest establishments may still need to have door staff.
What happens then, when you get a letter from a solicitor alleging that one of the door staff has caused an injury to a customer (which happens more and more). The first thing you need to do is to consult your pub insurance policy. This will, unless you have been mis-sold the cover, include public liability. Any injury to customers would fall under this section of the policy.
You are not obliged to respond to the initial solicitors letter at all, you send it as soon as possible to your broker and ask them what to do next. This will usually involve a claim form and a visit from a loss adjuster.
What the loss adjuster will check is whether the door staff are direct employees of your business or whether they have been sourced from a third party company. With the licensing laws on security staff, it is more common that a publican will source them from a 3rd party. If this is the case, it may be that the claim is passed directly over to this company. If not, your policy will need to provide the cover. But, be warned you must notify your broker if you employee door staff, whether direct or agency. If you do not and you have a claim, this may invalidate your policy and result in a claim not being paid.