Return your meal – it just might save you a trip to A&E

Refusing a meal served at a restaurant isn’t always because they didn’t bring you the right dish or cook it ‘just’ the way you liked it. Sometimes, it’s purely down to the quality of the food being cooked in the first place. And sometimes not refusing could be putting your health in more danger than you may be aware of.

We recently had a personal injury claim against JD Wetherspoons on Nottingham Road in Arnold for injuries sustained to our client’s mouth when she was simply eating a southern fried chicken wrap.

In her words, “the chicken was so hard she couldn’t bite into it”. Her friend that she was having a meal with noticed blood coming out of her mouth and she rushed to the ladies room. The next morning the bleeding still hadn’t stopped so she went to Queens Medical Centre A&E and was seen by a maxillofacial surgeon.

She was kept in hospital for 5 days, had to have a blood transfusion, have it cauterised and stitched.

How is it possible for fried chicken to be that hard?

Upon investigation it was uncovered that the chicken was hard enough to cause a laceration to the base of her mouth, and in those circumstances the chicken was not of satisfactory quality and amounted to a breach of the implied contractual term implied by Section 9 of the Consumer Rights Act, which states goods should be of satisfactory quality.

Upon further investigation it was uncovered that the chicken JD Wetherspoons sources for it’s chicken wrap, came from East Asia, was deep frozen, eventually shipped and put in the local restaurant’s freezer. There were no records available to account for how many number of months it had been frozen prior to it being cooked.

What should you do if you think your food is not of satisfactory quality?

Our client said, “If you get a meal and something is not right – send it back – don’t just eat it” You aren’t being rude to the waitress, or the cook or even the restaurant manager, as they are simply doing the best they can with the tools they’ve been supplied with by their head office, especially when it comes to the larger franchises and chains. But you do need to simply put your health first.”

 If you have eaten the food and have an injury, make sure you document everything. Take photos of the meal and your injury. Get contact details of witnesses. Keep records of your visit to A&E or your GP. Report the injury to the restaurant manager and ask for a copy of the report. And keep receipts of any costs that you incur along the way, including lost wages or time by family and friends that help you while you are healing.

We can help you make a personal injury claim against a restaurant

We have a friendly & local Personal Injury and Medical Negligence Law Team that has a strong local reputation not only for helping our clients make a successful claim, but we happen to have one the highest client satisfaction rates in the country.

We offer a free initial consultation to hear your story, understand what happened, it’s effect on your life and help determine if you have grounds for a successful claim.

We will take all the financial risk and represent you on a No Win, No Fee basis – so it won’t cost you any money throughout the process of filing your claim, and if you don’t win you won’t owe us a penny.

Speak to a member of our Personal Injury team today in Mansfield and Ashfield on 01623468468 or in Nottingham on 01159105555.

Alternatively use the enquiry form below and an experienced member of our team will be in touch within 24 hours.