If I cut my mouth on a piece of plastic in my ice cream, what legal action can I take?
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If I cut my mouth on a piece of plastic in my ice cream, what legal action can I take?
Asked on November 3, 2014 under Personal Injury, Kentucky
Answers:
S.L,. Member, California Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 9 years ago | Contributor
You will need to get medical treatment to document your injury in order to have a viable personal injury claim.
When you complete your medical treatment and are released by the doctor or are declared by the doctor to be permanent and stationary which means having reached a point in your medical treatment where no further improvement is anticipated, obtain your medical bills, medical reports, and documentation of any wage loss.
Your personal injury claim filed with the insurance carriers for the manufacturer of the ice cream and the store where you purchased the ice cream should include the above items (medical bills, medical reports and documentation of wage loss).
Compensation for the medical bills is straight reimbursement. The medical reports will document the nature and extent of your injury and will be used to determine compensation for pain and suffering, which is an amount in addition to the medical bills. Compensation for wage loss is straight reimbursement.
If the case is settled with insurance carriers for both the manufacturer and store, NO lawsuit is filed.
If you are dissatisfied with settlement offers from the insurance carriers, reject the settlement offers and file your lawsuit with separate causes of action (claims) for negligence and strict liability against both the manufacturer and store; however, if the case settled with one but not both parties (manufacturer and store), only file the lawsuit against the party with whom the case did NOT settle.
Negligence is the failure to exercise due care to produce a product that is not defective.
Strict liability imposes liability whether or not due care was exercised.
The manufacturer and store are both liable for negligence and strict liability. The store is liable even if it could not have known the product was defective.
If the case is NOT settled with the insurance carriers for both the store and manufacturer, your lawsuit for negligence and strict liability must be filed prior to the expiration of the applicable statute of limitations or you will lose your rights forever in the matter.
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