What are the next steps after a restaurant highchair accident?

[BessieBye]

This evening we went to a local restaurant that we go to a fair bit. We had pre booked the table so it was set out with a highchair for my 7 month old DS

About 5 minutes after sitting down, my DH put my son into the highchair. For clarity it was an IKEA highchair with no tray, so the chair was tucked under and his body close to the table.

A minute later, the highchair fell to the floor - with my son in it. Turns out, the highchair only had 3 legs, one had been detached. The front left leg was missing so we did not notice as it was already tucked half under the table.

He fell still in the sitting position within the highchair and hit his head - it has a red mark and we have been to A&E, he’s fine. His chin must’ve missed the table by a cm.

My parents were with us and my Dad is ready to start WW3 and he told them to expect to hear from a solicitor. Manager of restaurant accepted that the leg was missing and it was their fault.

We left very soon after and obviously for me it is all a blur

My question is, will a solicitor actually achieve anything here? Is it worth it? He wants to pursue negligence

I am too shocked to be angry right now, I burst into tears everytime it replays in my head. I thought I was going to be physically sick.

thanks for any advice

A few years ago, I reported a cafe to Environmental Health for a H&S issue relating to one member of staff's food prep. I asked if they could check out that the business knew the rules they should be following and if all their staff had been properly trained. The situation I saw happening was no way as serious as the injury to your baby - I just wanted the cafe's H&S to be better than I'd witnessed and that nobody ended up ill. EH were on it straight away, said I was right to have reported, spoke to the manager and he acted on everything immediately. EH gave me feedback afterwards as well.

If financial compensation isn't wanted, contacting the relevant powers that be would make sense anyway imo. You could ask if someone could check that the business' H&S policies and staff training are up to date, as well as making sure that all the furniture is safe for future customers. I think local councils have the power to shut down businesses immediately if they are not safe for the public and most catering establishments know this. If nothing else, you would be flagging the incident due to negligence so that, if anything like this were to happen again, or - heaven forbid - if your son ends up needing any more treatment, there'd be an additional history of the accident on record.

Did you book the table in advance? Did they have your phone number? If so, I would have thought that they should have phoned to check your details for their accident book.

But it would cost at least a few hundred just to get a solicitor to write pre-action letters and then prepare the papers for the claim.

Then what do you want?

Thanks for this. I think it’s something I’ll be doing come Monday morning after a lot of replies have said similar!

yes I booked online and gave email & phone number - had nothing!

No, you can do it yourself. The small claims track is designed for self-represented litigants.

@BessieBye Honestly, I can feel my blood pressure rising because I'm so angry.
I felt the same when my eldest was a tiny baby - a long time ago, but you don't forget - I had a carry cot from Mothercare for him, and a screw / rivet / whatever was quite rough, & it cut his tiny foot while he was kicking. The shop didn't seem too fussed about the injury, so I rang (I think) Trading Standards, who came out to my home to examine it.
Of course that was in the days when we had decent services, I don't even know if they exist now.. but at least I knew the design would be changed so no other child could be injured. Like you, OP, I just wanted something DONE. People shouldn't be allowed to risk customers' health.

I don't think it's OP who wants anything. It's her somewhat reactive father who wants to go nuclear.

If he wants to do that, I'd step aside and let him take care of it. I know I have enough on my plate without adding this. I'd just make sure the situation wouldn't happen again to someone else by writing a letter to them myself.

Suing for money will be pointless, I suspect, but action needs to be taken to stop this happening again to someone else.

Nobody should call it an accident when 25% of the highchair's legs were missing and the restaurantpaid no heed to that fact. . I'd imagine the restaurant is guilty of negligence of some sort, same as they would be if you sat in a chair that collapsed and they'd known it was unsafe.

Discuss with a solicitor.

Thank you. You got it

I think that’s something else I will do

Its not the OP that was threatening legal action, but her father. Read her posts again.

It was not an accident. It was negligence. You would be suing for distress. Who knows what long term impact this could have on your child.

You can’t sue just for “distress”. Clearly your username is ironic.

Report via local council - Environmental Health or Trading Standards.

Can I give you some advice from an old lady. You have had a terrible fright. You are justifiably angry and protective and in some way you might want to punish negligence. But the truth of it is, this is not likely to be the last accident your child has, and the next one could be caused by you.
Your precious child was spared any lasting injury, he has forgotten all about it. Damn stingy of the restaurant not to give you a freebie but that would be admitting liability.
This is the first of many bumps bruises and cuts he will get. If its any comfort, I dropped my son on his head, a week later he did a swallow dive off the dining table. He has just been invited to join Mensa, so relax. We sympathise but life can be tough sometimes.

Sure. But no one’s going to take any notice of a hopeless, pointless claim put together by a litigant in person.

Why don’t you tell your dad you don’t want financial compensation. Why is your dad the lead in this, they aren’t his child

Yes, you can sue for emotional distress if another party’s negligence or intentional actions caused you a diagnosable psychological injury

My DD had the tip of her finger sliced off on a metal bathroom door of a ferry. You could see the bone. It wasn’t negligence as such. It required an operation and we had to stay at a nearby hotel. I talked to my insurance agency and they said nothing to claim against as the cost of our hotel was below the excess and though she has a slight permanent disfigurement it has not affected the use of her hand (she was five when it happened so she couldn’t use her hand for a couple months but it wasn’t as if she was sitting her GCSEs). The Ferry company sent her a teddy bear!
You have no case without injury.

Ha, thank you for your message 😊 I also have a 5yo daughter who is extremely clumsy, so I thought I was accustomed to accidents!

have never witnessed anything like this though, I think it’s because he’s a baby that it has hurt me so deeply. My daughter didn’t get dangerous til she was about 3 and much more robust!

They might, and they might not. “You left a chair with a missing leg out for my child and he got hurt” goes a long way. As I said, there’s one way to find out for sure.

A litigant in person can be quite persuasive, by the way: the other side knows you have no costs at all.

That’s not distress. That’s psychiatric injury.

I get the feeling that the Grandfather doesnt want to sue for money but to make the point that they are negligent and so caused his grandson to have to attend A&E with all the distress associated with that.

I think my father would be the same. He has more money than God, but would probably say the same. It wouldnt be about the money.

I asked AI and under the Occupier's Liability Act 1957 you may well have a case because under this law public places such as restaurants etc have a duty to keep you safe, which this lot signally failed to do.

I don't suppose you got photos of the highchair? Anyway, ask AI, see what it says, cuddle your son and consult solicitor on Monday.

I am sorry if my original post came across that he wanted financial compensation, I was asking what he would get from reaching out to a solicitor and is it worth it (by get I mean what will the outcome be? Not how much money will he get). Will tell him to back down when he’s calmer, especially because I have now got appropriate info behind me from this post (which was my actual reason for posting).
With all respect you don’t know our family dynamic, he’s a problem solver (so am I and he usually lets me figure things out on my own) but this is his baby grandson and he has obviously also been sickened by watching him fall to the floor the way he did.

Under the Occupiers Liability Act 1957, restaurant owners have a legal duty to ensure their premises and furniture are safe for visitors.

PTSD = Psychiatric injury