  In imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescope (IACT) arrays, the standard method
of statistically inferring the existence of a source is based on the maximum
likelihood method of Li&Ma (1983). We present a new statistical approach, also
based on maximum likelihood theory, which takes into account a priori knowledge
of the source light curve. This approach is especially useful for observations
of rapidly decaying gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). We also discuss results
established by using this technique to analyze VERITAS GRB observations.
