How to sue a restaurant for compensation will involve you providing evidence that proves that the occupier of the establishment was at fault for the accident that led to your injury or illness. The fault at hand can range from food safety violations, such as undercooked chicken leading to salmonella, to faults with the building itself, such as trip hazards that have not been maintained and led to a broken leg. Whether it’s a fault with the food or the building that has led to your harm, it is unfair that you have been expecting to enjoy a meal and instead sustained an injury or illness. Therefore, our panel of solicitors want to help you gain the compensation that you deserve for the pain that you have suffered and the associated expenses. 

By calling one of our advisors, who are on hand 24/7, you can receive a free initial consultation to discuss the details of your restaurant claim and get an evaluation of the compensation that you may receive. They are also happy to answer any of your questions about the claims process before connecting you with a solicitor on our panel. 

Frequently Asked Questions 

1. How To Sue A Restaurant For Compensation
2. What Can I Sue A Restaurant For?
3. What Injuries Could I Sustain After A Restaurant Accident?
4. How Much Compensation Can I Sue A Restaurant For?
5. How Can I Prove Liability When Suing A Restaurant For Compensation?
6. What Are The Time Limits For Suing A Restaurant?
7. Why Choose To Sue A Restaurant With Our Panel Of Solicitors?
8. How To Sue A Restaurant For Compensation On A No Win No Fee Basis
9. More Information 

How To Sue A Restaurant For Compensation 

To sue a restaurant for compensation, you will need to prove that the occupier of the restaurant failed to comply with food safety or health and safety regulations and this led to your injury or illness. If you can prove each point of the criteria set out below, you could be eligible to sue a restaurant for compensation: 

1. You Were Owed a Duty of Care – The occupier of the restaurant owes all members of the public who enters a duty of care to ensure their reasonable safety. This includes ensuring that the food served complies with safety standards and making sure that the premises is safe for its intended use. 
2. This Duty of Care Was Breached – The occupier failed to take all reasonable steps to ensure that you were safe whilst in the restaurant. For example, seeing that all food being prepared was cooked correctly. 
3. An Injury or Illness Was Sustained – The occupier’s breach in not seeing that the food was cooked correctly led to you suffering food poisoning. 

If you want to have your eligibility assessed, contact an advisor today. 

What Can I Sue A Restaurant For? 

You can sue a restaurant for both injuries and illnesses that you have sustained whilst in the building, which may have been caused by either the food that you were served or a fault with the premises itself. Example scenarios of accidents that you can sue a restaurant for are given below.

Accidents Whilst At A Restaurant 

The Occupiers Liability Act 1957 sets out expectations for the occupiers of public places, such  as restaurants. They must see that they have taken reasonable steps to ensure the public’s health and safety while they are at the restaurant. Therefore, when maintenance issues such as loose light fixtures go overlooked and this causes a light fixture to fall and hit you on the back of your head, the occupier of the building would be liable. 

Restaurant Food Poisoning 

All restaurant staff are expected to meet food health and safety rules set out by the Food Safety Act 1990. If these rules are not adhered to, this can lead to food poisoning, such as salmonella from the chef not checking that chicken is cooked properly, or norovirus from the waiting staff not washing their hands. 

Allergic Reaction At A Restaurant 

As you are about to order your food, your waiter asks if you have any allergies in which you tell them that you are allergic to peanuts. This information is relayed to the chef but they forget and put a peanut sauce into your dish and you go into anaphylactic shock.

Restaurant Slips, Trips and Falls 

Upon entering a restaurant, your waitress shows you to your table, and whilst walking through, you slip on a spilt drink that had not been cleaned or signposted for, landing on your arm and fracturing it. 

Foreign Objects In Food Whilst At A Restaurant 

Whilst enjoying your meal, you swallow a metal nail that has fallen into your food whilst it was being prepared in the kitchen. This causes a puncture in your oesophagus.  

Restaurant Burn Or Scalds 

Your waiter arrives with your food and fails to tell you that the plates are piping hot causing you to burn your hands. 

To discuss the specific details of your case and how to sue a restaurant, get in touch with an advisor today. 

What Injuries Could I Sustain After A Restaurant Accident? 

After a restaurant accident, you could sustain injuries ranging from minor sprains to brain damage from a severe allergic reaction. As there are so many ways in which an accident can take place at a restaurant, this means that there are a large number of injuries that can be sustained. More examples are listed below: 

• Broken bones or fractures
• 1st, 2nd and third degree burns and scalding 
• Damage to internal organs 
• Soft tissue injuries 
• Sprains and strains 
• Surface injuries such as cuts and bruises 

You can discuss your injuries and get an evaluation for the compensation you may receive for them by contacting an advisor today. 

How Much Compensation Can I Sue A Restaurant For? 

How much compensation you could receive for a successful restaurant accident claim will depend on a few factors. These include the nature of your injuries or illness and whether or not you have incurred costs.

For example, you could sue a restaurant for up to £493,000 in compensation in the instance where an allergic reaction causes a lack of oxygen to the brain resulting in very severe brain damage. However, food poisoning or an allergic reaction causes significant discomfort with a complete recovery within a year or two would be compensated between £4,820 and £11,640.  These figures would compensate you for general damages, which is the physical and emotional pain that you have suffered, and it was taken from the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG). These guidelines give suggested amounts of compensation to award different types of injuries with different severities. 

More examples of compensation amounts suggested by the JCG for injuries and illnesses that you could sustain within a restaurant can be found in the table below. The top figure here was not taken from the JCG. Please be aware that these are just guidelines, not guarantees.

Type of Injury	Severity	Compensation Guidelines
Multiple Serious Injuries	Multiple serious injuries with substantial financial losses including rehabilitation, care costs and travel expenses	Up to £1million+
Brain Injuries	Very Severe - ability to follow basic commands but little meaningful response to environment	£344,150 - £493,000
	Moderately Severe - injured person will be very seriously disabled with substantial dependence on others	£267,340 - £344,150
Scarring to Body	Burns covering 40%+ of the body	Likely to exceed £127,930
Neck Injuries	Severe (iii) - fractures, dislocations or severe damage to soft tissues	£55,500 - £68,330
	Moderate (ii) - soft tissue and disc lesion of the more severe type with serious limitation of movement	£16,770 - £30,500
Hand Injury	Severe Fractures to fingers that can lead to partial amputation and impairment of grip.	Up to £44,840
Leg Injuries	Less Serious (i) - fractures where incomplete recovery is made or serious soft tissue injuries	£21,920 - £33,880
Wrist Injury	Less severe - still result in some permanent disability, such as stiffness and pain	£15,370 - £29,900
Digestive System Injuries	Serious but short-lived food poisoning - diarrhoea, and vomiting, diminishing over 2-4 weeks.	£11,640 - £23,430

Can I Sue A Restaurant For Financial Losses After Being Injured? 

Yes, you can sue a restaurant for financial losses after being injured. These will fall under the head of claim, special damages, examples of which can be found below: 

• Loss of Earnings – Instances such as food poisoning at a restaurant can leave you too unwell to work for a number of days meaning that you miss out on wages. 
• Travel Costs – Suffering a broken leg from a trip hazard in a restaurant can leave you unable to drive, therefore you will be reimbursed for public transport tickets. 
• Medical Expenses – You may have had to purchase antihistamines from having an allergic reaction in a restaurant or painkillers to help with the pain from a broken arm that you suffered because of a slip in a restaurant. 
• Care Costs – In more serious cases of injuries that have happened at a restaurant, you may have had low mobility for a significant amount of time. In this case, you may have had to hire carers to help you perform daily tasks.
• Adjustments made to the home – If you have suffered a broken back or neck in a restaurant, adjustments such as railings and stairlifts may have had to be installed in your home to help you get around. 

For any additional expenses that are associated with your injury, you should keep copies of receipts, invoices and payslips to prove that these payments were made so you can receive the full compensation that you deserve. 

You can discuss the general and special damages that you may receive in your compensation with one of our friendly advisors. Give them a call today. 

How Can I Prove Liability When Suing A Restaurant For Compensation? 

To prove liability when suing a restaurant for compensation, you will need evidence that proves the fault of the restaurant and how it led to your injury or illness. This can include: 

• The contact details of other customers within the restaurant who witnessed your accident 
• Medical records detailing what could have caused your injury or illness 
• Photo or video evidence of the accident and the aftermath 

More examples of evidence to support your claim can be found in our evidence needed for a personal injury claim guide.

To discuss the evidence that you have gathered, call one of our friendly advisors today. 

What Are The Time Limits For Suing A Restaurant? 

The time limit for suing a restaurant is 3 years beginning from the day that your accident in a restaurant took place and your injury or illness was sustained. This deadline may change for certain claimants who are unable to manage the claim process themselves. This is further detailed in our limitation period guide. 

To ensure that you are still within the legal time limits when making your claim, contact an advisor today. 

Why Choose To Sue A Restaurant With Our Panel Of Solicitors? 

Our panel of solicitors have a vast degree of skills and experience with personal injury claims which they can tailor to the specific details of your case. They understand that the accidents that can take place in restaurants and the injuries that can be sustained can have a significant emotional and physical impact on your life. Therefore, they want to help you to receive both a stress-free experience with the claims process, as well as the fairest amount of compensation possible. Some ways that they will achieve this include: 

• Assessing the injuries that you have suffered in the restaurant and your financial losses since to ensure that the compensation that you receive is a fair amount. 
• Advising you on what evidence will best support your claim. 
• Gathering statements from the other customers who witnessed your accident.
• Answering any of your questions about the claims process. 
• Explaining any complex legal terms so that you know what is happening with your claim at all times. 

You can get to know our panel of solicitors and the rest of the services that they will provide better by calling an advisor who will connect you today (if your claim seems eligible). 

How To Sue A Restaurant For Compensation On A No Win No Fee Basis 

To sue a restaurant for compensation on a No Win No Fee basis, you can enter a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA) with a solicitor on our panel, which is a type of No Win No Fee Agreement. CFAs allow clients to begin making their claim without paying fees for their solicitor’s services before or during the claims process. This also stands if your claim is unsuccessful. For successful claims, a small, legally capped percentage will be deducted from your compensation by your solicitor. This is known as a ‘success fee’, and the cap made by law means that you will receive the majority of your compensation. 

Contact Our Team To Get Started 

To find out if you are eligible to work with one of the No Win No Fee solicitors on our panel, speak to one of our advisors. They’re available around the clock to assess your claim and answer your questions.

• Call us on 0800 408 7827 
• Contact us by completing our online form
• Use our free live chat function

More Information

You may also find the guides below useful:

• Learn about how to claim compensation if you have suffered a scald injury in a restaurant.
• You may want to know how to sue a pub or bar.
• Read about how to claim for multiple injuries sustained in a restaurant.

For further information that may help you with your claim, visit:

• The NHS website for information on anaphylaxis.
• You can learn how to request CCTV  footage on the government website.
• Read about the expectations on food hygiene in businesses such as restaurants.

We hope you found our guide on how to sue a restaurant useful and we look forward to helping you with your claim soon.