Broken Chair in Cafe

[Brokenchair1]

Very briefly. Elderly DM fell off a chair in a cafe this weekend. It transpired the chair was broken (screw was loose). DM fell back hard and hit her head and bruised her side. I took her to A&E and thankfully she was fine but we spent the whole afternoon in there and she was quite bruised and battered as well as distressed.

I am concerned/annoyed about the handling of the incident. No manager on site, staff unhelpful and didn't really seem to care, other customers had to help DM up (I had literally popped to the shop next to cafe and it happened in the 5 minutes I was out). DM very shook up when I got back. Again staff had not checked she was OK (she hit her head), it wasn't until I asked them about logging it in the accident book that someone seemed to take an interest. I left my details but no call from manager. It was definitely a faulty chair as screw had clearly fallen out so no fault of DM.

What should be do, I am definitely not thinking of suing the pants off them but equally think DM should have something for distress and pain (still very bruised). I don't really want to use one of those injury 4 you lawyers as I generally don't believe in a suing culture but in this instance I felt the incident was handled badly.

Anyone with experience of this that can recommend what steps we take?

To be honest, I think I would just vote with my feet and put it behind us. Not nice to happen obviously, but these things happen and it’s only a bruise she (thankfully) ended up with.

But I’m sure other posters will disagree.

Surely if you wanted to sue the cafe or get compensation, you’d have to prove that your mum has incurred a financial loss of some kind eg. loss of earnings? Sorry that this happened to your mum, I agree with the previous poster to vote with your feet, leave them a bad review and maybe write a letter asking them to look at their accident policy so this doesn’t happen to another customer.

You could sue for her pain and suffering. If you are concerned to make sure it doesn't happen again you could report to the local authority

Would you feel the same if they had been more apologetic at the time? Could you call back and speak to the manager and see if lessons have been learned?
How do you expect them to do for you?

How does a screw loose cause her to fall off a chair?

That's really horrible that no one was bothered. Was this a cafe in a supermarket chain, by any chance? They are notoriously shite. But I'm pretty sure that their head office would have a different attitude.

@Sweetheart1313 that is rubbish.

Use a local solicitor and ask them to pursue a personal injury action. They will write to the other side and it should all get settled fairly amicably by the insurers for something in the region of £500 to £1000 plus costs.

In order to be successful with a personal injury claim, you need to be able to prove the cafe was negligent. From what you've said, the chair appeared fine when your mum sat down, so initially it doesn't look like the cafe would have reason to be aware of it.

Is it part of a chain or an independent? If a chain, I'd complain to their head office, and hope they offer you something. If an independent I'd let it go, at the most I'd post a negative review of the way it was handled.

Write to them detailing the incident. Ask them to tell you if they have repaired the chair. Ditto their policy re injuries/ accidents.
See what their reply says. If they accept responsibility, you might get somewhere with a claim.
Be aware that it will take around 2 to 4 years and will involve medical examinations and reports.