Incident reports record the date, time, location, persons involved, witnesses, the condition alleged, and the response taken. They are typically completed by store or facility personnel shortly after an event.
Whether they are protected as work product depends on whether they were created in the ordinary course.
Alternative Names:
Accident Report, Customer Incident Report
Why it Matters?
These reports are the closest thing to contemporaneous evidence in premises cases and frequently contain admissions the business would not repeat later, including statements about how long a condition existed or that it had been reported earlier. Work product protection generally fails where the business creates a report for every incident regardless of litigation prospect, which is the common practice. Prior reports at the same location establish notice.
Frequently Confused with
Related terms
Frequently asked questions
Are incident reports protected as work product?
Why are they valuable?
