Suing For Food Poisoning
If you're injured in an accident, you're entitled to full compensation for your medical expenses, lost wages, and other losses. While many people take accident literally, in personal injury law, it means any type of incident where someone's negligence cause you harm. This could also include food poisoning. Here's how to figure out if you're eligible to file a claim for food poisoning.
Do You Have Damages?
A food poisoning lawsuit is going to require more than just having an upset stomach for a few hours. You will need to have suffered a financial loss such as needing to go to the doctor or missing work.
You'll also probably want to make sure the case is big enough to be worth your time. If you only missed a day of work or needed a single doctor visit that was mostly covered by insurance, you won't recover much in a lawsuit.
Was it Really Food Poisoning?
Food poisoning is a specific type of injury caused by mishandling of food. If you really suffered a food allergy, you cannot sue for food poisoning.
However, you might have a separate food allergy claim if you wouldn't have reasonably expected to come into contact with the ingredient you were allergic to and no warning was given.
Where Did the Food Poisoning Come From?
You also must be able to prove the source of food poisoning. While food poisoning usually happens quickly, you likely would have eaten food from several different places in the time range in which you could have gotten sick.
This is one of the biggest reasons that food poisoning lawsuits are uncommon. One of the only real ways to prove the source of food poisoning is when a large number of people are affected. In those situations, it's possible to trace the food poisoning back to a specific restaurant or grocery store item because it would have been the only common thing all of the people had eaten.
Who Was at Fault?
If you're suing for food poisoning, the restaurant, grocery store, or manufacturer must have actually been responsible. You must be able to prove that you didn't cause the food poisoning yourself by not properly storing or reheating leftovers or following the cooking instructions on a grocery store item.
To learn more about whether you may be entitled to compensation if you've suffered from food poisoning, contact a local personal injury attorney (like The Reed Noble Law Firm PLLC).