Can I Sue A Restaurant For Bad Food ?

Can I Sue A Restaurant For Bad Food ?  You can’t sue simply because you did not like the taste of the food, but there are situations where a restaurant could be responsible if it serves food that results in some sort of injury to the consumer.

Restaurants are subject to possible claims including general negligence as it relates to the premises itself, liability of drivers if the restaurant has a delivery service, and products liability.  Products Liability?  Yes, just like the widget owner who sells his/her product, the widget, can be liable for a product defect, so can a restaurant owner who sells defective food product.  Examples of product liability claims that an individual could bring against a restaurant owner would typically be some food-borne sickness claim, like salmonella.

It does happen.  Just a few days ago a Colorado woman filed a lawsuit against Chick-fil-A (and others) when she cracked her teeth on what was suppose to be a pitted cherry in her milkshake.  Turns out the cherry was not pitted, and she cracked two teeth below the gum-line, which she alleges led to infection, sepsis and a heart attack.

The most known and talked about is the Liebeck v McDonald’s case.  There Mrs. Liebeck sued for and was awarded damages for severe burns she suffered when the coffee she purchased split on her lap.  While the general public thought this represented the worst in America’s judicial system, those opinions stemmed mostly from an uninformed media.  Read the article in the link above and then ask whether Mrs. Liebeck was entitled to the award she received.

McDonald”s is not the only one, Arby’s was sued in 2005 when David Scheiding got a little something extra with his chicken sandwich, human skin.  Apparently the skin came from the manager’s hand, who admitted he cut his hand while slicing lettuce.  The layer of flesh somehow fell into the lettuce, then onto Mr. Scheiding’s sandwich.

So again, to answer the question “Can I Sue A Restaurant For Bad Food ?”  If you believe you (or someone you know) became ill because of a restaurant’s food or bit into some foreign object in the food, you (or that person) should contact a lawyer to discuss the matter, you may have a cause of action against the restaurant.