Bar & Restaurant Injury & Illness Claim Lawyers

Calculating Compensation for Pub, Bar or Restaurant Injury Claims

When considering claiming compensation for an injury or illness acquired in a social venue such as a bar or restaurant, there are two types of compensation that your solicitor will be seeking on your behalf, general damages, and special damages

The general damages element of your bar or pub compensation claim relates specifically to the injury itself and is designed to compensate you for the pain, suffering and loss of amenity that you have endured and will consider three main factors:

• Physical pain and suffering endured as a direct result of the injury
• Mental pain and anguish endured as a direct result of the accident and injury
• Loss of amenity, considering any loss or reduction in the victim’s ability to carry out physical or mental tasks they were capable of prior to the injury.

The general damages figure for any pub or restaurant injury compensation claim is determined by the specific details of the incident and the type and severity of the injuries sustained. This element of any compensation award is variable although there are guidelines set out by the Judicial College, to which the courts and insurance companies will often refer.

The special damages element of your pub or bar injury compensation claim relates to any financial losses or financial costs incurred as a result of the injury and will include:

• Loss of earnings
• Loss of future earnings
• Financial cost of medical treatment
• Financial cost of anticipated medical treatment.
• Transport costs, such as taxi fares to and from medical appointments
• Alterations to the claimant’s home or vehicle

Special damages are relatively straightforward to calculate because they specifically reimburse the victim for any pub, bar, restaurant, or cafe injury-related costs, as well as recompensing them for any injury-related expenses going forward, a figure that your solicitor will calculate with assistance from the appropriate medical professionals.

Proving Defendant Negligence in Pub, Bar & Restaurant Injury Claims

In order to pursue a bar, club, or pub injury claim, you are required to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the venue staff have been negligent and that their negligence is responsible for your injuries. There are many ways in which a bar, pub, club, or restaurant owner can be negligent, the most common examples include:

• Insufficient staffing levels
• Inadequate staff training
• Lack of security or inadequately trained security staff
• Inadequate or inappropriate signage
• Continuing to serve customers obviously under the influence of alcohol
• Inappropriate or misleading reporting of accidents
• Negligence surrounding any Health & Safety

If you are unable to prove negligence, then it is very unlikely that your compensation claim will be successful. There will be instances where an accident occurs and the customer has done absolutely nothing wrong, suggesting a compensation claim may be a valid option. However, if the venue owner or manager has fulfilled their duty of care and has done everything they possibly could to ensure the safety of the premises and their customers, then they may have a valid defence against the claim.

On the flip side, there may be incidents where the customer has consumed excessive alcohol prior to the injury, presumably compromising their right to claim compensation but this is not always the case. If the pub or club owner or manager has failed to ensure the safety of their customers, be it a wet floor due to a faulty toilet or an item of inadequately maintained furniture, it is still possible the victim may be entitled to make a claim with split liability.

In cases of split liability, the compensation awards are adjusted to reflect the degree of liability of each party, so if the claimant was deemed to be 50% responsible for the accident and their own injuries, then they would receive just 50% of the overall compensation award.