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Posted by: OFT Food Safety & Injury Lawyers

A severe case of Salmonella poisoning can result in severe illness, medical bills, and lost wages. You shouldn’t have to pay for your illness and losses when someone else is responsible.

Several factors affect how much your salmonella case is worth.

What Is Salmonella?

Salmonella is a bacterium that can cause Salmonellosis, a type of food poisoning. This type of bacteria can make people sick when they consume contaminated food. The CDC estimates Salmonella bacteria cause about 1.35 million infections in the United States each year.

Common foods that can transmit Salmonellosis include:

  • Meat
  • Poultry
  • Seafood
  • Eggs
  • Fruits
  • Vegetables
  • Spices

Animals, especially birds and reptiles, can transfer it through their feces as well.

How Do I Know I Have Salmonella Poisoning?

Salmonellosis affects the intestinal tract in humans. Many people with a Salmonella infection have no symptoms. However, others with more severe cases can develop symptoms within eight to 72 hours after eating contaminated foods or drinks.

Common symptoms include:

  • Diarrhea
  • Fever
  • Abdominal cramping

Some people can recover without medical attention. However, others need prompt medical care to prevent life-threatening complications like dehydration and infection that expand past the intestines.

Compensation in Salmonella Cases

A severe case of food poisoning requires intense medical treatment. You could have thousands of dollars in medical bills. According to the FDA, medical costs for foodborne illnesses are as high as $83 billion each year.

Salmonella cases are no exception. You may have extensive financial losses due to treatment and the inability to work and function normally for an extended time.

Types of Compensation You Could Recover

If you can identify the company or party responsible for your illness, you can hold them accountable. You can get compensation for two types of damages: Economic and non-economic.

Economic Damages

Economic damages are those that a monetary amount can easily define. They are usually associated with bills, receipts, and out-of-pocket costs. Economic damages include things like medical bills and lost wages.

Non-economic Damages

Non-economic damages are not easily valued. They include things like pain and suffering and loss of consortium. Just because you didn’t lose money on non-economic damages does not mean they do not hold value.

What Is the Total Value of My Salmonella Claim?

The total value of your Salmonella claim depends on the total amount of losses you have sustained. In general, you can be compensated fully for what you’ve paid in medical expenses, lost wages, and other economic damages. These could be in the thousands of dollars or more.

The value of your claim will also include your non-economic damages. Although the value placed on those may seem arbitrary, there is often a formula or estimate used to determine the value of these. Some insurance companies will offer an amount multiplied by your economic damages.

For example, if you had $50,000 in economic damages, the insurance company may offer you two-and-a-half times that amount for non-economic damages ($125,000). The total value of your claim would be $175,000. However, this is not a guaranteed number, and each case should be evaluated individually.

Evidence in a Salmonella Lawsuit

When you file an insurance claim with the at-fault party’s insurance policy, you will have to provide evidence that they are to blame and evidence for the value of your damages. This evidence is necessary if you want to file a lawsuit to obtain compensation – if the insurance company refuses to make a reasonable settlement offer.

You will need evidence to show the following:

  1. The food service company or restaurant had a duty
  2. They breached that duty
  3. That breach resulted in your injuries
  4. You suffered financial damages due to those injuries

The restaurant’s duty comes from laws. The state health department requires them to maintain a safe and healthy food environment to prevent people from getting sick.

Types of Evidence

You must collect evidence of the restaurant’s negligence, such as:

  • Witness testimony
  • Temperature logs
  • Pictures
  • Videos
  • Additional cases of Salmonella poisoning by other patrons
  • Health code violations

Your medical bills, lost wages, and other economic damages prove that you suffered monetary losses due to your illness.

This evidence might seem like common sense, but it must all be stated in legal terms and presented to the court in a specific manner to obtain compensation in a Salmonella lawsuit.

Call a Salmonella Food Poisoning Lawyer Today

If you or a loved one contracts Salmonella poisoning after eating at a restaurant or other food establishment, contact OFT Food Safety & Injury Lawyers. Our experienced food poisoning attorneys help you recover compensation for your damages.

Call us today at (888) 828-7087 or use our online contact form to schedule a free consultation.

Notable Recoveries

$10 million

Seven infants were sickened after consuming a contaminated food product marketed to infants

$6.5 million

Verdict on behalf of a little boy who contracted a severe Salmonella infection from chicken

$7.55 million

Verdict on behalf of a little girl who contracted E. coli at a petting zoo

$2.25 million

E. coli infections contracted from a major fast food chain

$45 million

An over-the-counter medication caused severe kidney damage to multiple users

$3.4 million

A pregnant woman contracted a Listeria infection from contaminated fruit and passed the infection to her child

$3 million

Multistate Cyclospora outbreaks

$275,000

A couple contracted Salmonella from a restaurant

$525,000

A pedestrian was struck by a left-turning car, fracturing her tibia

$700,000

A semi-truck rear-ended a motorcyclist causing a collapsed lung, rib fractures and road rash