Can You Sue Over Food Poisoning?

by Vikas Bajaj

When you go out to eat at a restaurant or have prepared food delivered to your home, you have a right to expect that the food is prepared safely and is available for your consumption without fear of illness. This is one of the many reasons that local public health departments perform cleanliness checks of restaurants in their jurisdiction, and post the rating in a highly visible location at the front of the restaurant. It is absolutely essential that foodservice businesses maintain cleanliness in order to keep their customers safe from illness caused by contaminated foods. Two of the most common food poisoning pathogens are E. coli O157 and Salmonella, both of which can cause serious harm to a victim.

Determining where you contracted your food poisoning can be difficult unless there is a large outbreak and many people are able to trace it back to a single origin, but that does not mean that you should not attempt to determine where you contracted the illness. While you are suffering the effects of food poisoning, it can be difficult to want to do anything, but there are some steps that you will want to take in order to give yourself a strong legal case for seeking compensation from the responsible restaurant or food provider. 

Contact The Law Offices of Vikas Bajaj Today For Legal Help After Food Poisoning

Our law firm offers a free consultation for victims of food poisoning and a range of other personal injuries so that we can discuss your situation and how we can help you move forward towards fair financial compensation for your suffering and your monetary losses. There is a process that you will need to follow in order to ensure that your case is as strong as possible, which can feel like an impossible task given the condition you will be in while you are sick with food poisoning. This is why it is so important to partner with an attorney who can start the process and simply guide you through to ensure that you are improving your chances as much as possible.

Read more below about seeking compensation for food poisoning, and contact our firm as soon as possible for a free initial consultation about your situation. 

What Is Food Poisoning?

Food poisoning, as the name implies, is an illness that someone suffers after exposure to a virus, parasites, or bacteria in their food, or other infectious organisms and their toxins. Once exposed, the victim will suffer from effects such as nausea, vomiting, fever, sweating, and diarrhea. Typically, food poisoning symptoms are mild, but there are cases that the victim is extremely ill and may require medical intervention such as saline IV to rehydrate, antibiotics to combat the bacteria, and more.

Common Food Poisoning Pathogens

The severity of the food poisoning often depends on the type of pathogen that the victim is exposed to, as well as the quantity that they are exposed to. The following are some of the most common pathogens that result in foodborne illnesses in the United States.

Campylobacter

Campylobacter poisoning is typically the result of exposure to raw or undercooked poultry, or consuming something that came into contact with the raw or undercooked poultry that was contaminated with this bacteria.

Clostridium perfringens

Clostridium perfringens is a bacterium found in the intestines of humans and animals and is commonly transmitted to humans for consumption on raw meat or poultry.

E. coli

Escherichia coli is arguably the most well-known of all foodborne pathogens and is found in the lower intestines of warm-blooded animals. There are many different Escherichia coli strains, most of which are harmless, but there are a few pathogens that can cause nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea when transmitted through contaminated food or drinking water.

Listeria

This is a serious food poisoning caused by the bacteria Listeria monocytogenes and typically impacts pregnant women, newborns, elderly adults, and people with compromised or weakened immune systems.

Norovirus

Norovirus is a highly contagious virus that causes diarrhea and vomiting. People who are sick with norovirus shed billions of infectious particles, and a person can become ill with exposure to only a small number of these particles. 

Salmonella

Salmonella is another very common form of foodborne illness, found in the intestines of healthy humans and transmitted through fecal matter in contaminated food or water. As with most other food poisoning bacteria or viruses, symptoms include fever, chills, vomiting, diarrhea, and nausea.

Filing a Lawsuit For Food Poisoning

Once your symptoms have cleared, you will be able to start looking towards the future and getting the compensation that you deserve for your suffering and losses. In order to file a personal injury claim or lawsuit, you will need to be able to prove a few key details:

• The defendant owed you a duty of care to provide safe and clean food free of contaminants
• The defendant failed their duty of care by serving food with harmful viruses, bacteria, or other pathogens
• This failure caused you measurable damage in the form of food poisoning and the associated symptoms
• Your food poisoning caused measurable damages, including things like lost wages, pain and suffering, medical bills, and more

While it may seem fairly straightforward to determine the answers to these criteria, it is important that you explore the entirety of each bullet point with an experienced legal professional to ensure that you are providing the proper evidence and arguments for why you are entitled to compensation. A misstep early on in your case may cost you a significant amount of money, and you can be certain that the defendant’s legal defense team will be working to find every possible reason to poke holes in your claim and either reduce or outright deny your right to compensation.

Contact the team at The Law Offices of Vikas Bajaj as soon as possible so that you can start your case off right: with representation from an experienced and aggressive personal injury attorney who can help make things right and get you the money that you deserve.