Memphis Personal Injury Lawyer
It’s Friday night. You’ve had a long week at work and all you want to do is grab a drink with some friends before you head home. However, the night doesn’t go as planned when a rowdy group enters the bar. Before you know it, they have started getting aggressive and a fight breaks out. And even though you and your friends are minding your own business, you wind up getting injured from a bottle that was thrown across the room.Do you know who would be liable to pay for your medical bills in this situation? In this post, we’ll walk you through the process of filing a civil claim for a personal injury lawsuit in Memphis.
Who is liable?
If the fight was truly not your fault, the best place to start is the person who started the fight (or the person who actually injured you). Ultimately, they are the ones liable for the fight and therefore are liable for your medical bills. The trouble with this is that sometimes the people who start the fight don’t have the insurance coverage to pay for your medical bills. It could be your best bet to sue the place of establishment you were visiting on the night the fight happened instead.
This type of case against a bar or restaurant is called a negligence case. This means that you will need to prove that the business was negligent, and that their negligence resulted in your injury.
Proving Negligence
The best way to prove negligence on the part of the bar or restaurant is to look at their security and alcohol policies. The person who injured you was most likely intoxicated, so you need to research the bar’s policy on over-serving individuals. For example, did the servers knowingly serve more alcohol to a person who was clearly intoxicated to the point where they could become a danger to themselves or others? Was there enough security present — e.g., was it a large, crowded nightclub where multiple security guards are needed, or was it a local bar where having one person run security would be sufficient?
What are the next steps?
If you are injured in a fight at a bar or nightclub, there are many things you can do right after the fight occurred in order to help win your case.
- Let the manager of the bar know immediately that you were injured during the fight. Insurance companies and juries tend to question how serious you were injured if you fail to report the accident by the next day.
- Get names and numbers of anyone who witnessed the fight. They can help your claim by confirming the attacker’s behavior the night of the fight. Witnesses can be very important in lawsuits brought on against the business.
- Talk to a personal injury lawyer.
These types of cases can be tricky due to all the reasons mentioned above. It’s important to have someone on your side to help get you the compensation you deserve. Contact Patterson Bray today to meet with a Memphis personal injury lawyer about your case.