If you have become ill by food poisoning, you may be wondering if you have a case and who can normally help you under such circumstances. Is this a personal injury case and will an accidents attorney be able to help? In most cases, the answer is yes. However, you need to keep in mind the fact that this will depend on the particular circumstances of your illness.
A food or substance poisoning case has to be proven in court so as the liable person, persons or organizations can be brought to justice. As any specialized food poisoning and accidents attorney will explain, delaying the case between actually consuming the substance and the onset of your illness may make it difficult to prove that it was the actual substance that made you sick.
A specialized lawyer will be able to know better what legal theories can actually form the basis of your lawsuit, how a case can be proven and who the liable part in all this is. Below are a few things you need to know about food poisoning claims.
- A substance or food poisoning lawsuit will fall under the defective product liability claim. This means that you bought or have been offered a defective product that manage to injure you or someone in your family.
- You should know that many states have adopted extremely strict product liability laws and these can make the job easier for you and your attorney, because they basically relieve you of any burden of proving negligence in producing and distributing a certain product from the manufacturer.
- In many cases negligence is to blame for substance poisoning and this is a good thing to prove, especially if your case is reported in a state that doesn’t have strict liability laws. The attorney’s role in this case is even more crucial as they will have to prove that in your case, the organization selling you food acted negligently in manufacturing or supplying a contaminated product. The attorney will have to prove the fact that the defendant failed to exercise reasonable care in distributing a contaminated food to the clients.
- Another line of defense in a food poisoning case is related to breach of warranties. It is good to know that many states impose a minimum standard on all foodstuff merchandise, and selling products that are in breach of those warranties will actually constitute a legal violation.
As in all accidents that involve hard to prove cases, the toughest thing will be to determine who is actually liable for your food poisoning case. The general rule is that the end- product distributor, in most cases can be the party to blame. However, as your auto accidents attorney will tell you, it is best to try and include any and all parties involved in the chain of distribution of the contaminated food. A good attorney will have the means to research and to track back contamination to its initial source and in case they are successful in determining where the initial contamination came from, you will have more parties that can be made liable for your personal injury.