Two Questions To Answer Before Suing For Food Poisoning

When you get food poisoning after eating in a restaurant, you can file a food poisoning claim and get compensated for it, right?  Maybe, but it isn't as straightforward as that. There are several questions you need to answer first, and two of the most important are:

Is It Worth It?

The worth of a personal injury case is one of the most important factors in determining whether or not to sue. In some forms of personal injury, such as car accidents, the injuries are almost always worth suing for, but the situation is different for food poisoning.

For example, if all you had was an upset stomach (and probably handled it with an over the counter drug) after eating dinner in a restaurant, then you may not get much in terms of settlement for your personal injury. This is because you have no permanent disfigurement, future medical expenses or even serious loss of earning capacity or wages.

However, it is a different situation if your food poisoning is serious. This is usually the case if you have to be hospitalized or even require complete bed rest for some time. In such situations, you may have to miss work, require help with your household chores and medical attention. If you were briefly hospitalized, and aren't sure whether to file a claim or not, consult a personal injury lawyer to know whether your case if worth suing for.

Can You Prove It?

Just because you had a serious case of food poisoning doesn't mean that you should sue for it; you also need to be able to prove it. For example, you may have eaten different meals in different places (don't forget the snacks) on the day in question. A suspicion isn't enough because the restaurant can claim that you got sick from any of the other foods. In fact, they may even claim that it is not food poisoning, but just an illness you picked up elsewhere.

You need to link the restaurant's food to your sickness, and the best way to do this is to get examined by a physician. The physician will diagnose you, treat you and identify the offending food, if indeed it is food poisoning. Apart from that, you also need to link the bad food to the restaurant, and this is easier if there are others with the same claim. Generally, the sooner you consult a doctor, the easier it is to link your poisoning to the food that caused it.

As you can see, pursuing a successful food poisoning claim isn't as simple as writing a demand letter and getting your settlement. These cases are complicated, and restaurants know it. In fact, this is one of the cases where you shouldn't even write the demand letter without a lawyer's input. Contact a lawyer like Gallagher Law Offices PC for more information.


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