AIBU to ask you for help on who I should sue...?

[stuckstudent]

I need to preface this by saying I'm a regular poster who has name changed as this isn't a RL scenario - I'm absolutely stuck with part of an assignment I don't want my tutor to work out I don't know what I'm doing

Six months ago you visited a restaurant, before you entered a dog escaped from a pet shop two doors away. Dog runs into the road causing a car to swerve and hit a lamppost which in turn falls on the pavement and causes a chair on the pavement, belonging to the restaurant, to fly into the air. The chair hits you on the head, knocks you unconscious and you break an arm in the fall. You have to take 4 months off work.

If you wanted to pursue a personal injury and loss of earnings claim who would you issue proceedings against? I think you would claim against the restaurant's public liability insurance but my DH thinks you, and the car driver, would pursue a claim against the pet shop for negligence...

AIBU to ask MN to save my sanity?!

Assuming this is a degree level law question, you must know what they want here, assuming you attended the lectures! The question basically gives you the opportunity to go through all the main tort principles and case law. Just pick up a book (nutshells will do if you're desperate) and go through it step by step. I'm a litigation lawyer (although there's never any question as to who is being sued in my line of work!)

You need legal advice. In this incidence it looks like claim on car insurance as it was the driver swerving that caused the problem (had he emergency braked or ran over the dog nothing further would have happened). But you need to take a professional opinion.

DailyFail1 - OP is a law student having to do an essay on the described scenario about who to sue!

Presuming the restaurant is legally allowed to have chairs on the pavement, they also could claim against the driver for the damage to it.

You should claim against the car driver. I have heard that you are not supposed to swerve to avoid animals but this may be from Shaun of the Dead unreliable. However, this is not up to you to decide. Your injury was as a result of a car accident and you need to claim against the car driver's insurance. If the driver claims that it is the fault of the pet shop, then the insurance company will claim from them, and they will claim the cost of your damages from them too.

Cr drivers fault, he shouldn't have swerved. Although the car driver will prob sue the pet shop. But for your purposes the driver, they swerved and caused the lamp post and chair chain of events. They should have braked or hit the dog.