Restaurants can be held financially liable if patrons get sick after eating their food. The problem with trying to sue a restaurant for damages due to food poisoning, however, is that simply feeling nauseous after a big meal is not enough to warrant a major financial settlement, explains David Stoddard, a personal injury attorney in Greenville, SC.
Stoddard says that he would be unlikely to accept a case where a client claimed he had taken ill due to the food served at a local restaurant because it can be extremely difficult to prove that any type of food borne illness was caused by eating at a certain place. Just being sick after eating a meal is not enough to win this type of case, which is why expert witnesses and medical professionals are needed. To move forward with this type of personal injury case in Greenville, SC, an attorney would have to find a doctor who would say that the client has gotten sick due to eating a certain type of food from the restaurant.
Unfortunately, medical witnesses who will agree to testify in court about a person’s food borne illness do not come cheap. Additionally, a personal injury attorney in Greenville, SC, might also need to hire other professionals to prove the client’s claims, including a toxicologist or a chemist. Hiring professionals to testify in these cases and to establish a client’s damages is very expensive, and attorneys are usually the ones who will foot the bill up front for these types of costs in most personal injury lawsuits.
The problem with hiring experts to testify in a food illness case—assuming there are experts who are willing to testify, since proving what caused this type of sickness can be difficult at best—is that their testimony will usually cost more than what a plaintiff could expect to receive in a settlement.
Unless the victim in this type of case can prove some type of permanent damage, which is unlikely with food borne illnesses, then the amount that a jury is likely to award in a lawsuit will probably be very small. For any illness lasting three days or less, chances are that the cost of hiring experts to testify will be higher than what the victim can expect to receive in damages.
With all that being said, Stoddard says that there are ways that individuals can receive compensation from restaurants that made them sick. Rather than going through the trouble of looking for a personal injury attorney who may or may not decide to take on the case, Stoddard recommends heading straight for the restaurant manager.
In many cases, simply contacting the restaurant and letting the manager know what happened will result in some type of small financial settlement. Restaurants pay insurance to cover these types of claims, and many are willing to negotiate to avoid having to deal with attorneys.
This article is for informational purposes only. You should not rely on this article as a legal opinion on any specific facts or circumstances, and you should not act upon this information without seeking professional counsel. Publication of this article and your receipt of this article does not create an attorney-client relationship.