I tripped in a Starbucks cafe and fell on a table and chipped a tooth. Will I be able to recover the cost of dental treatment from Starbucks?
You will certainly be able to claim compensation for a chipped tooth if you make an injury claim for having tripped in a Starbucks cafe, but whether you are entitled to take legal action will depend on the cause of your trip and fall in a Starbucks coffee shop.
It is only possible to make a personal injury claim if an accident has been directly caused by third party negligence. There must also have been a duty of care owed to you; the breach of which resulted in you sustaining a personal injury. This means that the accident must have been caused by the action – or inaction – of the staff and your injury must have been preventable. It must also be reasonable to have expected the staff to have taken action to prevent your accident under the circumstances. If this can be established and proven, your claim for a trip in Starbucks should stand a good probability of success.
It is important that your accident is recorded in the coffee shop’s accident book as there should be an official record of the accident. The accident book report will help to establish that your accident occurred inside the coffee shop where a duty of care was owed to you. The accident book and your dental records will be used as proof of the accident and injury respectively.
It would also help your case if you could supply other evidence to support your claim. Photographic evidence would be ideal if you were able to take photographs of the hazard which caused your trip and fall, although if photographs were not taken immediately after the accident this opportunity may now be lost. You should certainly arrange for someone to take photographs of the damage to your tooth as this will establish the extent of the damage to your tooth that was caused when you tripped in a Starbucks cafe.
One of the easiest ways of establishing and proving negligence of the staff in a claim for a trip and fall in a Starbucks coffee shop is by taking statements from eye-witnesses to the accident. If you were unable to record the contact details of witnesses to the accident it may be possible to obtain statements from the staff. A lawyer is in the best position to take statements from witnesses and the names of members of staff working at the time of the accident will be obtained from the coffee shop manager and contact can be made to obtain their version of the accident.
If you allow a lawyer to assess your case and prepare your claim for a trip in Starbucks you can be sure that all the legal processes will be completed correctly and the strongest possible case for compensation is filed against Starbucks. This will ensure that your claim has the greatest probability of success and that you can recover the cost of dental treatment and recompense for your pain and suffering in the shortest possible time frame.