Virginia Business Lawyers
Sometimes, it’s tough for injury victims and their families to really understand their options. In a more general sense, the public doesn’t often understand how much third-party responsibility can leave businesses and other parties open to liability when someone is harmed in a public area.
One way to understand this better is to take a look at how restaurants and food service businesses work.
The Dangerous Kitchen
It seems like most of us are pretty knowledgeable about food safety and food risks.
From prominent television shows, to different types of news documentaries and the health report in a local newspaper, restaurants live or die on their reputation for food safety.
Build a restaurant with a sparkling kitchen, a well-qualified staff and properly handled food, and you’ll get many accolades in your community. That includes the press, bloggers and word-of-mouth that’s so valuable to businesses.
On the other hand, let a restaurant degenerate into chaos, and locals will be calling for your head. When people get word about improperly refrigerated meat, raw food residue on cutting boards, pests in the kitchen or other really egregious and disgusting food-service errors, they often react almost instinctively and with passion. We get the idea that we put our health in a restaurant owner’s hands every time we dine there.
Legal Compliance in Other Industries
By contrast, many of us don’t think about things like premises liability and product liability the same way.
We may not think about how irresponsible use of a business fleet can cause traffic accidents. It might not be at the top of our list to look for dangerous omissions in warning signage or other safety precautions in public areas that can have just as drastic of an effect on our health. While food-service safety is something tangible you see, taste and smell, legal compliance in industries like retail and transportation is quite different. It’s just not as evident.
But to really understand what all businesses need, go back to the idea of the clean restaurant. Businesses need the right kind of compliance, insurance and management. They need oversight where people look for any of the biggest dangers that people could experience in their business, whether it’s a rickety stairway, navigating local roadways or using powerful equipment to manufacture products. Safety needs to be the first thing on the owner/manager’s radar, something that everyone is vigilant about, or there just could be a case that threatens the long-term viability of that business.
Injury lawyers understand this because they see it first-hand in helping injury victims and their families. Those who suffer because of someone else’s errors rely on these attorneys to get them money that they need to handle medical costs, lost wages and much more, including the pain and suffering that could have been prevented by adequate safety management.
If you or a loved one was injured in central Virginia, call a food safety lawyer at the law office of MartinWren, P.C. for help with your personal injury case.