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If you are injured while dining at a restaurant, did you know you may be entitled to compensation for your damages? Examples of such injuries can include:

Restaurant Owners Responsibilities
The owner of the restaurant cannot predict or prevent every possible injury to patrons, but they do have the responsibility to take basic steps to ensure patron safety, such as:

Personal injury claims come about when a restaurant owner fails to meet any of these basic responsibilities.

What to Do If You are Injured in a Restaurant

First, seek medical attention, and document your injuries and treatment. Take photographs of any injuries you receive as soon as possible and even during the healing process to support your claim of injury. You may even want to document weight loss you experience if you are unable to eat or keep food down for extended periods due to serious illnesses like salmonella poisoning.

An attorney licensed to practice personal injury law can assist you in obtaining copies of your medical records related to the injury, including x-rays and your doctor’s notes on your condition. Be sure to keep records of all expenses you incurred as a result of your injury, like medical bills, but also keep track of lost wages from any times you were unable to work due to your injury.

Your personal injury lawyer may also interview restaurant employees or other patrons who witnessed your injury, as well as take photographs of the restaurant to document anything that contributed to your injury.

What Happens Next in My Personal Injury Claim?

Your personal injury attorney will assess your claim based on the medical evidence, your expenses and his professional expertise. He will contact the restaurant with a suggested personal injury settlement amount. The restaurant may choose to pay immediately or negotiate the settlement amount with your attorney. Should the restaurant owner attempt to deny any responsibility for your injuries, your attorney may file suit against the restaurant on your behalf; in this case, a judge and/or jury may hear your case and award damages based on the evidence presented. No matter how your case is settled, a personal injury attorney is a strong advocate working on your behalf in fighting the restaurant to recover your damages and receive compensation for your injuries.

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If you are injured and believe someone else is to blame, your first step should be to find the best possible personal injury attorney to represent your needs. Start by finding an attorney who is licensed to practice Personal Injury Law in your state. A quick Internet search will direct you to your state’s Bar Association, which licenses and monitors all attorneys. In most states a lawyer can receive accreditation as a “Personal Injury Lawyer,” so start by downloading a list of those attorneys in your area. Some attorneys may note specialties such as “Brain Injury Law,” for example. This may not refer to a State Bar licensing but ratheran area of experience or interest.

Many people choose an attorney based on who has the funniest commercials or biggest billboards. Abundant advertising is not a guarantee of competent legal services and attention to your needs, just proof of a large advertising budget.

Once you have a list from your State Bar’s website of attorneys in your area that are licensed to practice Personal Injury Law, you may be overwhelmed. Typically, large cities have plenty of personal injury attorneys. Start narrowing down the list by contacting firms who can meet with you in person for a free initial consultation within the next few weeks. If an attorney wants to charge a fee to hear your story, consider contacting someone else. If you’re injured, you probably cannot afford to wait two months for an initial consultation.

Seek recommendations for a personal injury lawyer from personal friends or family members. Consider the source of the feedback, though. If your uncle didn’t like his attorney, how meaningful is that if your uncle never likes anyone?

Next, review the attorneys’ websites. Pay particular attention to attorneys’ biographical information. Did they attend a well-respected law school? How long have they been practicing Personal Injury Law? Try internet searches to find comments from past clients about the attorneys, although keep these in perspective: one irate client may not tell the whole story as he rants on and on in a social media posting, while ten satisfied clients of the same attorney may never think to post their praise online. If nothing else, comments from people you don’t know about an attorney can help you with specific questions to ask during your initial consultation.

Once you narrow your list down to five or less attorneys, schedule your consultation appointments. Be prepared for these interviews. Write down in advance questions you want to ask; take notes during the interview on the attorney’s responses. If you take any documents with you, like doctor’s reports or photos of the accident scene, be sure to leave your originals at home and take only copies. Questions to ask your personal injury attorney can include:

• What types of cases has the attorney previously handled (wrongful death, nursing home negligence, medical malpractice, food safety violations, etc.)?
• How many cases has this attorney represented?
• What were the case outcomes?
• What was the compensation amounts for similar personal injury cases?
• Who would work with you, the attorney in your interview or someone else in the firm?
• How many paralegals will work on your case?
• What is the attorney’s fee?
• Did the attorney seem to value you and your time?

Try to meet anyone in the firm that would be part of the legal team representing you and tour the office. It is also important to  ask for references from past clients.

Once your interviews are complete, make a list of “pros and cons” for each lawyer. Be sure to note whether you liked the attorney and whether they seemed trustworthy. You will potentially spend a good team of time with your personal injury attorney, and you need to feel comfortable with this person. After making the right preparations and asking the right questions, you can select your personal injury attorney with confidence.

Personal injury occurs far more often than many of us think. It’s unfortunate, but a fact of life. Sometimes people are hurt. Sometimes someone dies. Sometimes the injuries are so severe the medical expense is great. What happens next? In order to get proper compensation, it is necessary to hire an experienced personal injury lawyer. It’s his or her job to fight for your rights in court. But what kind of cases are we really talking about? This guide goes over some of the more common personal injury lawsuits.

Car Accident Law
With tens of thousands of accidents occurring across the country on a monthly basis, it’s no wonder the majority of personal injury cases are related to car accidents. Sometimes a semi driver driving a company car makes a mistake. Sometimes someone has been drinking too much. Sometimes a simple mistake leads to great injury if not a death. Personal injury lawyers often take on car accident cases when insurers start to give trouble about paying proper damages.

Hurt On The Job
Worker’s compensation usually covers these injuries. If you suffer an injury on the job, most often your employer will have some form of insurance to help. There are cases where you may get no help. If you made a mistake because you were intoxicated, you might be denied help. If you’re an independent contractor working off-site, you may not qualify. Sometimes a worker deserving of help does not get his or her proper benefits. In this situation, you can hire an experienced personal injury lawyer.

Medical Malpractice
Doctors do make mistakes, and this is another common form of personal injury. When medical malpractice occurs, it’s important to know your rights. Every year, hundreds of patients win large personal injury settlements because they were given the wrong operation, or a clear mistake was made such as giving them the wrong medicine. In these cases, you need someone to fight for your rights, and that is quite often a personal injury lawyer.

Product Defects
While there are many other common forms of personal injury claims, such as tripping or falling, the final one we’ll be going over relates to product defects. While not the most common personal injury, there are literally thousands who go to court because their child was hurt by a defective toy, or their spouse was hurt while operating a device, or they themselves suffered injury because of a defect.

Winning a Personal Injury Claim
To close, if you are unsure as to how to get started with your personal injury claim, it’s time to consult with a lawyer. You may think your claim is weak, when in fact you stand to get much more money than you thought. You always have a chance to win. The greater you or your loved one’s injury, the more compensation you deserve. Proving you deserve money is the hard part. Hire a lawyer today to get help winning your claim.

Officials in Congress are calling for a modernization of food safety laws after a recent Salmonella outbreak responsible for making 474 people ill in 43 states and killing as many as six people.

Rep. Rosa L DeLauro (D-Connecticut) said that the recent outbreak confirms the need to modernize food safety laws.

“Given the numerous food-borne illness outbreaks over the past several years, it is becoming painfully clear that the current regulatory structure is antiquated and ill-equipped to handle these extensive investigations,” stated Rep. DeLauro.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention believe that they have traced the tainted peanut butter and peanut paste responsible for the most recent outbreak to Peanut Corp.’s Blakely, Georgia, plant.

Production at the plant has ceased and recalls of products made with peanut products from the plant continue.

General Mills announced Monday a recall of its LARABAR Peanut Butter Cookie flavor snack bars and JamFrakas Peanut Butter Blisscrisp flavor snack bars because they were made with peanut butter purchased from Peanut Corp., the suspected source of the contamination.

Ralcorp Frozen Bakery Products on Sunday announced its recall of all Wal-Mart “Bakery” brands of peanut butter cookies, peanut butter no-bake cookies and peanut-butter-fudge no-bake cookies.

McKee Foods also announced on Sunday a recall of its Little Debbie Peanut Butter Toasty and Peanut Butter Cheese sandwich crackers, which were manufactured for McKee by Kellogg Co.

The FDA said that recalls are not linked to any national, name-brand peanut butter. Most of the products from the Blakely plant were sued by food companies to make cookies, cereal, crackers, ice cream and candy. Some peanut butter also went to institutional food service, which supplies schools, hospitals and nursing homes.

Kellogg Co. announced Monday that it found the bacteria in one package of Austin Quality Foods Toasty Crackers with Peanut Butter, a product that had been recalled prior to the finding.

A complete list of items included in the recall is available on the FDA’s Web site.