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When you go out to a restaurant, you are expecting a nice evening filled with delicious food, drinks and conversation. That’s why the last thing you expected was to get hurt due to a personal injury. As the restaurant is a public environment that means that the person in charge of the venue is also in charge of the safety of the visiting public. Therefore, if something goes wrong, you should start looking into personal injury claims. We understand that this has been a difficult year, especially due to the pandemic, that’s why it can be especially traumatic if you have ended up suffering from an accident.

Here at Gowing Law Solicitors, we are determined to help you with your PI case. No matter how serious your case is, our solicitors will be there to help you receive the compensation that you deserve. All you need to do is get in contact with our law firm to get started. You can call us on 0800 041 8350 or by using our claims checker below:

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Personal Injury Claims: What do I need to know about them?

Before we talk more about public accidents and restaurants, let’s take a moment to actually talk about what personal injury claims are all about. The first thing you need to know is that personal injury claims are there to protect you if you experience an accident in a public area. You can experience a personal accident in a range of areas, including parks, shops, bars or hotels. There can even be personal injuries made for pavement and road accidents. These types of accidents can be caused by a range of third-parties. This includes:

  • Shop owners
  • Salon owners
  • Car drivers
  • Builders
  • Local government
  • Engineers/Repair workers
  • Manufacturers

Those are only a few examples of the type of third-parties responsible for your injuries. In some cases, there may be times that you do not know who was responsible for your accident. For instance, if you suffered from a criminal injury, there may be a chance that you had a brain injury that caused you to forget who hurt you. There is also a chance that you just didn’t see who caused you the injuries. If this has happened to you, you will be able to make a claim through CICA.

If you have suffered from a personal injury, make sure to follow the process below to ensure that you can claim compensation for your damages.

The Personal Injury Claims process is:

Personal Injury Claims Process

Restaurants and Liability: What are their duties to the customer?

When a restaurant opens their doors, their first priority should be the happiness and health of the customers. They will want to be able to make sure that their customers enjoy their food and the environment of their establishment. However, there are additional legal responsibilities that they have to adhere to. Not only do they need to have public liability insurance, but they need to ensure that their staff and restaurant comply with health and safety procedures and training. They also need to identify any additional hazards. That way they will be able to take a look around their restaurants and ensure that any faulty equipment, flooring or dangerous parts of the environment can be identified.

If a restaurant fails to act properly and deal with the potential threat, they could be held liable for any damages that you experience. Liable means that they are responsible for causing your injuries. Therefore, they will also be responsible for paying your compensation.

Slips and trips in a restaurant

Restaurants: What sort of injuries could I suffer from?

No matter what sort of environment you go to visit, there is a chance that you could suffer from a personal injury. It all depends on the negligence of the owner or manager of the establishment. The manager/owner owes their clients a “duty of care”. That means they need to make sure that the clients in the public venue are kept safe. This is the same for any employees that work at the restaurant. Unfortunately, even in the safest venue, someone may end up getting hurt due to negligence. That is why restaurants will hold public liability insurance. This insurance will help them with paying out for compensation.

Now, for restaurants in particular, negligence may appear in different forms. Some of the most common forms of negligence in a restaurant could include:

  • Food poisoning
  • Untrained Staff
  • Broken or dirty cutlery
  • Not knowing the safety routes out the restaurant
  • No fire safety in the kitchen
  • Foreign objects in the food
  • Insects in the food
  • Aggressive staff/customers

If you have experienced any of these types of negligence, it is likely that you could end up with a personal injury. You can make a claim for any large or small injuries. However, you will need to decide for yourself about whether or not you think your injury was worth the pay-out.

Restaurant Personal Injury Claims

General Damages and Special Damages

Of course, some of these injuries are going to be more extreme than others. The extent of your damages in the restaurant will determine the amount of compensation that you could be owed. Your damages will be grouped into two different categories. These are general damages, which are your physical damages, and special damages, which are your additional damages. Keep in mind that the more additional damages you suffer from, the more likely it is that you are going to receive a higher amount of compensation for your damages. Additional damages can appear before, after or during the your personal injury.

So, for instance, let’s say that you suffered from a burn from some hot soup falling on you. Before you went into the restaurant, you noticed that a piece of carpet was torn and that the restaurant’s environment was messy. You recommended having the area cornered off but the staff did not do this. So, when the waiter came over with your order, they tripped and spilled the soup on you. This can show that they were negligent and you deserve compensation.

You not only suffered from general damages from this event, but potentially some of the following special damages.

Special Damages

Special Damages for Personal Injury Claims

For emotional damages, this is where your mental health has been affected by your injuries. So, you may have suffered from anxiety, depression or perhaps a current mental health problem has become worse. For financial damages, this may have included paying for health care of rehabilitation facilities or taxi or transport payment. Your wage may have also been affected because you have had to take time off work to recover. Damages to belongings means that your property has been destroyed during the accident. It will need to be replaced with a second-hand item. Now, you may be wondering about losses of opportunity. A loss of opportunity means that injury has impacted your future opportunities. So, you were meant for a promotion. However, as you had to take time off work, this promotion went to someone else.

Your solicitor can help you with any type of injury that happens in a restaurant. Make sure that you inform them about any additional damages you may have suffered from. They can assist you with sorting out your claim and compensation.

Time limit for making personal injury claims

Why could I be owed compensation from an accident in a restaurant?

Now, when you go into a restaurant, you have to understand that it is a public venue. Therefore, the owner and staff of the venue will have to take care of you and make sure that you are safe upon entering the premises. If they act negligently, and you do end up getting hurt, you could end up getting hurt. There are some very specific injuries that you may suffer in a restaurant. These can include:

  • Slipping on food, greasy spills or spilled drinks
  • Falling over due to bad lighting in restaurant
  • Burns of spilled food
  • Unclean/broken toilets
  • Food poisoning
  • Objects in food orders
  • Aggressive waiting staff

Personal injury claims happen when a staff member or the owner of the restaurant acts negligently against you. So, the staff or owner does something that gets you hurt. If you end up getting hurt from a public accident, you need to start thinking about personal injury claims. That way you can claim the compensation that you deserve whilst you are recovering from your wounds.

Food Poisoning: Can I make a claim?

One of the most common things you may get as a personal injury from a restaurant is food poisoning. The restaurant has to follow health and safety policies. This means that they need to make sure their facility:

  • Is clean and tidy
  • Has a well-maintained kitchen
  • Uses well-trained staff
  • Is prepared to handle food safely
  • Is clear on their training procedures

Health and safety inspectors are required to check on restaurants at least once a year. However, there may be times that a badly run restaurant goes under the radar. Therefore, you may end up getting hurt due to badly prepared food or due to the negligence of the staff. If this does end up happening to you, and you get food poisoning, you could be eligible for compensation. You should start your personal injury claim soon so you can get yourself the pay-out that you deserve.

Food Poisoning and Personal Injury Claims

Allergic Reactions and Personal Injury Claims

Another thing that may happen in a restaurant is that you could have an allergic reaction when you eat the food. Now, it is your responsibility to pick food that you will not have an allergic reaction to. However, the restaurant will need to list the ingredients of the meals they provide. If they do not do so, or they don’t inform you of any allergens, and you have a reaction then you could be owed compensation for your damages.

You could also experience a reaction if a staff member or waiter gives you the wrong information and you order a certain type of food. So, make sure to tell your waiter as quickly as possible if you are allergic to any of the food. They can assist you and make sure your order doesn’t contain any of the allergens that could hurt you. If they fail to do so, you could be owed compensation for your damages.

How much compensation could I be owed for a restaurant accident?

There are many different amounts of compensation that you could be owed for your damages. The amount you receive will depend on the extent of your physical injuries, the extent of the negligence from the restaurant, any special damages you suffered and how long the case has been going on for. The worse your damages are, the more likely it is that you are going to receive a higher amount of compensation for your injuries. In some cases, this could be thousands. The best way to find out how much you could be owed is to speak to your solicitor. They can help you calculate an estimate of how much you could be owed for your damages. This can help when it comes to talking about your settlement agreement with the responsible party.

Gowing Law Solicitors can help with Personal Injury Claims

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If you have suffered from a restaurant accident, it’s important that you come to Gowing Law to get your compensation sorted. We can help you with any type of personal injury claims. Whether you have suffered from life-changing injuries or you are well on the road to recovery, our law firm can help you win the compensation that you deserve. Gowing Law’s expert team of solicitors will offer you free advice and consultations to get you started. If you are happy to move forward with your claim, our lawyers can work with you on a “no win-no fee” basis. That means you will never need to pay any hidden fees. Instead, you will only have to pay your solicitor if they win your case for you. Therefore, you will always come out on top!

Find out how Gowing Law Solicitors can help with personal injury claims by calling 0800 041 8350, emailing info@gowinglaw.co.uk or by using our claim’s checker above. One of our specialists will then be in contact to answer all of your questions.

Learn more about Personal Injury Claims

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Don’t forget that every week Gowing Law Solicitors adds new content to its blog to entertain and inform as many people as possible. We understand that it can be complicated to take on a case on your own. That’s why we want to be there to provide you the basics of your case through our content. Our blogs include information about different legal claims, updates about our law firm, seasonal events and the occasional competition/giveaway. Right now we have a Halloween competition going on. So, make sure to get yourself involved with that. You can also take a look at our newsletter to see what we have been up to:


Make sure to also visit our social media pages to learn more about different claims. We host competitions and create interactive content and videos for you to enjoy.

Gowing Law looks forward to seeing you in our next blog.

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Gowing Law are a professional law firm that specialises in the personal injury sector of the industry. Gowing Law are Authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA).

Gowing Law are trusted by the people who they have helped in sucuring the compensation they deserve, with fantastic reviews across all review sites including Trustpilot & Google Reviews.

Gowing Law is law firm based in Manchester but offer their legal services nationwide. We specialise in the personal injury claims and our team of solicitors have the experience and expertise needed to handle your case and help you through the claims process.

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P: 0161 464 4444
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