Man injured from bolt found in food at Edinburgh restaurant

Nobody expects to go to a restaurant and be injured by simply eating a meal. This is why health and safety law exists, to protect customers.

However, on this fateful day, Mr Robinson was on a business trip and visited an Edinburgh restaurant. As he was eating his meal, he bit into an industrial bolt that was hidden in the food.

The large bolt in question measured 66mm long and 20mm thick. However, for some reason, it was not detected by the restaurant when preparing the food.

As a result of this oversight, Mr Robinson suffered an injury to his jaw, damaged teeth, and mouth pain. He is now on a soft diet and uses a soft bite guard because of what happened. 

The restaurant gave him a refund for his meal and offered him a free meal if he came back to the restaurant in the future in an effort to resolve the situation. After what happened, Mr Robinson was not in a rush to return, and felt this was an insulting attempt to sweep things under the carpet. Later, the insurers of the restaurant got in touch directly with Mr Robinson about what had happened.

“The restaurant were extremely unprofessional, aggressive and insulting to be honest. Dealing directly with the insurers was terrible and they were very evasive throughout.”

“Goodwill” sum to make injured parties go away

Although Mr Robinson lives in England, only a law firm based in Scotland could pursue his claim as the accident happened in Edinburgh.

David Henderson, Senior Solicitor in the Product Liability department, said: ”It's pretty common in these types of cases for client's to contact companies directly before coming to specialist product liability solicitors, and they'll often be offered very small "goodwill" sums to go away.

“During our investigations it transpired that many of the promises made by the insurer were not actually kept. For example, they said a thorough investigation would be carried out and CCTV would be reviewed but this never happened.”

Court action to recover injury compensation

It is not uncommon for insurers to deny responsibility for accidents and try and get out of paying compensation. However, in these situations, it can be possible to serve Court proceedings to force the insurer’s hand. 

As you may well know, there are costs associated with taking a case to court and there is no guarantee that the case will be successful. To give clients the best shot, it is essential that we fully investigate what happened and have the right experts in place.

This is made easier with Digby Brown’s Compensate funding which is similar to what many will know as no win no fee. Essentially, it gives our solicitors the resources to run a case and gather all the necessary evidence.

Insurers continued to drag their feet and maintain they were not at fault in an attempt to bully us into abandoning or under-settling the case. In the end, insurers put their hands up and admitted fault, and paid the compensation Mr Robinson was entitled to.

Mr Robinson said: “Digby Brown took ownership of the case from day one and came back with a great result. The process was very clear and my solicitor was very friendly, I was happy with the outcome.”