Bars and restaurants have strict standards for food safety and cleanliness that they must follow to stay open. If bars are excessively dirty or dangerous, they could lose food safety ratings and potentially serve contaminated food and drinks, but dangerous conditions on the premises can also lead to outright injury for patrons.
If you or a loved one was injured at a bar or restaurant, you might be entitled to financial compensation to cover your injuries. the Maryland lawyers for injuries at a bar or restaurant at Rice, Murtha & Psoras represent injury victims and fight to get them compensation for their injuries. For a free legal consultation on your potential injury case, call our lawyers today to set up a free legal consultation at (410) 694-7291.
Types of Accidents and Injuries at a Bar or Restaurant
If you were out at a bar or restaurant, the last thing you should have to be concerned with is safety. the food you eat at a restaurant should be safe to eat, and the premises should be safe for you to walk and sit and enjoy a meal or a good time. When the owners and operators of the establishment fail to take cleanliness and safety into account, patrons can be injured in a number of ways.
Premises Liability and Slip and Fall Injuries
Injuries from unsafe premises are some of the most common injuries. the area inside and outside of the bar should be safe. At the very least, this means making sure that there is a safe place to walk and that outside sidewalks are free of ice and snow and that inside floors do not have puddles of spilled drinks, hazards from broken glass or plates, or uneven surfaces that could cause someone to trip. Especially if the bar or restaurant is very dark inside, these risks could be increased. This also means that the establishment needs to clean up their bathroom and keep it safe or warn about slippery floors when excess water accumulates on the floor. Injuries from unsafe conditions might entitle you to sue the bar or restaurant.
Food Poisoning, Foodborne Illness, and Objects Found in Food
Risks of food poisoning and cross-contamination are often present at some establishments. While people might not be visiting dive bars for the food, every place open to the public that serves food and drinks must follow certain standards of cleanliness and food safety to avoid getting their patrons sick. Everyone has seen shows or heard horror stories about bars or restaurants with food safety issues, but no one wants this to happen to them. If you came down with food poisoning, norovirus, or another foodborne illness after eating at a restaurant or bar, talk to a lawyer. You might also be able to seek justice if you found something in your food that should not have been there and it made you ill or caused you physical injuries.
Violence and Assault
When people are drinking, they could be less able to control their impulses or emotions, which is why bar fights are something that is often associated with some bars and establishments. Except in matters of self-defense, nothing usually entitles someone to start a bar fight or to hit someone else at a public place. This means that anyone who assaulted you, started a fight with you, or touched you inappropriately should be held responsible for those actions. Additionally, this means that bouncers and security staff at bars do not have the right to use force or violence against you except in self-defense. This means that if you were handled roughly or beaten up by a bouncer, you might be entitled to compensation.
In most of these cases, you will file your case directly against the individual who injured you, but if they were an employee at the establishment, you can typically sue the bar or restaurant as well for their employee’s actions. Additionally, if the bar’s bouncers and security staff allowed someone into the building that should have been kept out because they were dangerously drunk, overly aggressive, or carrying a weapon, the establishment could be responsible for negligent security.
Damages for Injuries at a Bar or Restaurant in Maryland
If you or a loved one was injured at a bar or restaurant in Maryland, you might be entitled to sue the responsible parties for your injuries. A lawsuit can often get you compensation for the harms you suffered because of the injury. In most cases, this allows you to claim damages for medical expenses, lost wages, and pain and suffering.
Damages for medical expenses can cover the full cost of any treatment you received because of your injury, including first aid from an EMT, treatment at the ER, follow-up appointments, and ongoing physical therapy or rehab for serious injuries. You can also claim compensation for any time you have to take off of work to get medical treatment and to allow your injuries to heal. If your injury was severe enough that it makes it hard to go back to work, you might be able to claim damages for future lost wages as well. Lastly, even though there are no bills or paperwork you can produce to show how much it is “worth,” you can claim damages for the pain and suffering you faced from the injury.
Call Our Maryland Bar and Restaurant Injury Attorney for a Free Case Consultation
After facing injuries at a bar or restaurant, you should speak with an experienced injury attorney. Rice, Murtha & Psoras ’s Maryland lawyers for injuries at a bar or restaurant offer free legal consultations where we can sit down and discuss how much your case might be worth, whom to sue, and what deadlines might apply to your claim. Call our lawyers today to set up a free legal consultation and get your case filed on time. Our phone number is (410) 694-7291.