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IMS-Capabilities-Retail-and-Hospitality_2094686011

Retail & Hospitality

Law firms and corporations worldwide rely on IMS to provide the expert, research, and consulting resources needed to assess risk, clarify complex operational issues, and build strong case strategies in high-stakes retail and hospitality disputes.

Avoid having a single interaction put everything in jeopardy.

Businesses in retail and hospitality have high-volume interactions with the public, and a single incident or risk can have far-reaching impacts. An injury claim at one location raises questions about safety protocols across the entire chain. A pricing dispute with a local vendor exposes the terms of every supplier contract. A data breach triggers scrutiny of customer information practices throughout the full portfolio. An employee’s wage dispute becomes the basis for a class action.

That is why legal teams need to reconstruct and present details about daily operations, staffing, safety measures, and contract terms in ways adjudicators can easily decipher.

Retail and hospitality cases often involve:

  • Premises liability and personal injury claims
  • Consumer protection and false advertising disputes
  • Wage-and-hour and employment matters
  • Franchise and licensing disputes
  • Supply chain and contract disagreements
  • Data privacy and cybersecurity matters
  • Intellectual property and brand protection
  • Regulatory and compliance investigations

IMS has supported law firms in matters like these for decades, working on behalf of retailers, restaurants, hotels and resorts, property management companies, and franchisors/franchisees. We provide seamless access to expert witness and consulting services to help turn operational and financial details into arguments that adjudicators understand. Explore our approach below.

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From Early Case Assessment Through Trial and Appeal: Integrated Support for Retail & Hospitality Litigation

IMS provides coordinated solutions across the lifecycle of retail and hospitality disputes, helping legal teams evaluate claims, clarify operational realities, assess damages exposure, test strategies, and communicate evidence with impact. By bringing together specialized experts, consultants, designers, and technicians under one roof, we enable clients to streamline case preparation and ensure every component of the strategy supports a cohesive narrative.

Featured Case Study: Finding a Corporate Cybersecurity Expert

IMS sourced a cybersecurity expert for a union pension fund's federal securities class-action against a hospitality company over financial losses tied to a data breach. The client needed someone with executive-level corporate IT experience, and we delivered candidates within two business days, ultimately placing a consultant with a systems engineering PhD and prior expert-witness experience. The case was dismissed.

Read the Case Study

Retail & Hospitality Litigation Capabilities

  • Expert Advisory & Analysis

    • Economics & Finance: Quantify damages, lost profits, and reasonable settlement ranges to inform case strategy heading into trial or settlement negotiations
    • Litigation Surveys & Rebuttals: Field consumer and market research where brand, trademark, or advertising issues are part of a retail or hospitality matter, along with rebuttal analysis of an opposing party's survey or damages methodology
    • Statistics, Sampling & Econometrics: Support statistical and sampling methodology behind a damages or class certification position in wage-and-hour or consumer class actions

    • Expert Witness Search

      • Custom Expert Witness Search: Locate subject-matter experts in retail operations, hospitality management, premises safety, and franchising for litigation and arbitration proceedings
      • Technical Expert Witness Search: Source technical, engineering, and security experts for data breach, cybersecurity, and facilities-related retail and hospitality matters
      • Medical Expert Witness Search: Engage qualified medical specialists whose clinical expertise and litigation experience align with personal injury, catastrophic injury, wrongful death, and product liability matters involving retail and hospitality businesses

    • Litigation Consulting

      • Strategy & Theme Development: Shape a compelling case narrative for presentation to a judge, jury, or arbitrator
      • Jury Research & Mock Trials: Test case themes and settlement positions with mock juries and focus groups before trial
      • Trial Graphics & Multimedia: Build interactive timelines and demonstratives, including tools like Chronos®, designed to make complex operational and financial evidence clear to a lay decision-maker
      • Presentation Technology: Ensure exhibits and expert testimony are presented without issue at trial, in mediation sessions, and in settlement conferences, including in matters with heavy documentary and video evidence

    • Medical Legal Experts

      • Life Care Planning & Rebuttals and Vocational Assessments: Evaluate future care needs, work capacity, earning potential, and long-term damages associated with catastrophic injury, premises liability, and other personal injury claims
      • Economic Damages Analysis: Quantify future medical costs, lost wages, diminished earning capacity, and other long-term financial losses related to injury claims
      • Medical Expert Witness Services: Access pre-vetted medical specialists across hundreds of clinical focus areas to assess causation, treatment, standard of care, and the medical evidence supporting claimed injuries
      • Medical Demonstratives: Develop medical illustrations, animations, timelines, and other visual exhibits that help judges, juries, mediators, and arbitrators understand complex injury-related issues and damages claims

    FAQs

    Premises liability and personal injury claims, consumer protection and false advertising disputes, wage-and-hour and employment claims, franchise and licensing disputes, supply chain and vendor contract disagreements, and data privacy or cybersecurity matters involving customer and payment data are frequently litigated in the retail and hospitality industries.

    IMS can be engaged at nearly any stage. Before discovery closes or a trial date is set is preferred and provides the most foresight for building strategy and claims. Early engagement allows time for expert witness search and vetting, strategy and theme development, and the design of trial graphics or interactive timelines that can be refined well before trial.

    IMS expert witness search teams quickly source and vet experts specifically for retail operations, hospitality management, premises safety, and franchising matters. Experts are matched for subject-matter expertise and the ability to present credibly to a judge, jury, or arbitrator.

    IMS supports individual premises liability and consumer disputes as well as wage-and-hour, consumer protection, and data breach class actions, providing the statistical, survey, and damages expertise these matters require. We work with plaintiff and defense teams throughout the United States and internationally.

    Jury research and mock exercises, strategy and theme development, and trial graphics all translate directly into retail and hospitality case preparation, adapted to the operational and consumer-facing nature of the industry. We bring earned insights, based on decades of practical experience in 70,000+ cases spanning all industries.

    Blue textured angles.

    We bring a unique perspective based on decades of practical experience in 70,000+ cases spanning all industries.

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