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Season’s Greetings from the Legal Department
It’s totally that time of year again, y’all. Holiday Parties can mean only one thing: Awkward drunken proposals delivered under makeshift mistletoe arrangements, designed primarily to make the rest of the year unbearably tense! Good times.
In that spirit, both Lawyers.com and Dahlia Lithwick have offered much-needed primers on the legal liability associated with holiday parties, namely “social host” laws, which hold party hosts liable if their guest have one too many spiked eggnogs and run over little Timmy on the drive home.
Such hosts may unwittingly put themselves in legal hot water by not carefully monitoring their guests’ intoxication levels, particularly when they get in their cars. A few precautionary minutes when planning parties can save the time, money and the heartache of the legal ramifications of a guest’s crash.
In other words, designate a key master. May we suggest this handsome fella to the left!
As Lawyers.com also makes clear, office parties contain increased risks for unwanted sexual advances, for which business owners can be held legally liable.
So, Ms. Lithwick has come up with the perfect holiday invitation, for all those who don’t want to be sued for Christmas.
WARNING: You are herein invited to attend a Holiday Party. Should you choose to attend this event, you are herein advised that you do so at your own peril. Food served may be manufactured in factories that may contain machinery that may have touched peanuts. In the absence of any coherent party-based sexual-harassment policy, you are warned that any hugging/touching/casual flirting/wine-stem fondling/hair tossing/breast gazing/butt grabbing will be deemed actionable at law. All guests must maintain a 5-foot distance from all others at all times (spouses included). Appropriate topics for conversation are: work; sports; light political banter; reality-television shows. Any unapproved conversational topics shall be cleared in advance by the Human Resources department. All dance moves shall be preapproved by the HR department. Seminars on these moves shall be conducted twice daily in the small conference room on the second floor between now and the day of the party. All closets, conference rooms, restrooms, and other possible areas of sexual misconduct are to be padlocked for the duration of the event. Small children are to be chaperoned at all times. Any child found playing or otherwise conducting himself in a childlike manner will be summarily removed from the premises. Should you or your partner feel at any point during the party that you have been sexually harassed, socially discomfited, religiously proselytized, or otherwise made to feel uneasy in any way, a team of HR lawyers will be made available to you immediately. Do not minimize your feelings or wait a few days to see if the bad feeling blows over. Prompt attention to any social discomfort is critical to eradicating it in the workplace. Once again, we wish you and yours a very happy holiday season, and hope to make this year’s office party the best ever.
Happy Holidays.
(Hat Tip to Overlawyered for bringing the links to our attention)
