Q: I have a customer who wants to fill out a customer incident report for an injury she said she received more than 5 months ago at our venue. She said she told a staff member on the day of the incident but was not told to, or made aware of, the need to fill out an incident report. She now claims her injury may require surgery and wants to fill out a report.

Is this too long ago for us to report this? Especially considering she could not even give an accurate date as to when the incident happened. I am concerned of the accuracy of the report, as there is no way I can verify her version of events.

A: The risk that you face in agreeing to complete the incident report is that it will open up a claim by the injured person asserting that your business was negligent and could lead to a potential civil law suit for damages. An incident report is intended to be contemporaneous. Unless the business has independent evidence that the incident occurred at the time, it should not agree to complete the customer incident report.

Please note: The answer is correct at the time of publishing. Be aware that laws may change over time. Refer to Incident reporting and investigation for current advice.