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 letter threatening court action from a LiP would go to the business’s solicitor - and they may well have insurance to cover legal costs anyway - and the solicitor would just write and say you have no case for compensation and if you issue we’ll get you struck out, and seek costs.

Hollow threats are not a good idea.

I assume your father can't do anything about this, its not his kid?

Nothing to do with money.
The next baby might not be so lucky.

How did it fall if the front part was tucked under the table?

If it had one leg missing but the front was tucked under the table then the table itself would've prevented the chair from tipping sideways. As the part of the chair under the table would've lifted and hit the table bit and as the table would be heavier than the chair the chair would lift up a little but couldn't tip all the way as the table would foul this part of the chair preventing it from tipping?

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They might. Or they might offer you a free meal for six. Or send you a cheque. Especially when having their solicitor write will cost them more than £500. £1.80 to find out which.

Aren't you curious? I'll chip in half if the OP's dad decides to write. Now it's only going to cost 90p to find out.

No you cannot! Are you a lawyer? Because I am and I’m telling you that you are wrong.

I’d be all in favour of a suitably unhappy letter to the restaurant. And, as I said, they might offer something as goodwill. But that’s not the legal process you were talking about.

www.legalexpert.co.uk/how-to-claim/broken-chair-accident-claims/

You are having a laugh with that!

This is funny!

If the goal is to make sure that the restaurant doesn’t offer any more broken chairs to customers then forcing them to spend more than £500 to have a solicitor to tell you to get lost is a really good way to make that happen. Even if you don’t receive anything.

Oh stop with the faux naivety. He’s your dad. Put down MN, pick you the phone and ask him what he fucking wants. How can we tell you?

Unless….unless…. You’re just trying to extract money from the restaurant. It won’t work. There was no actual injury

I cannot believe some of these responses. This was not an accident. It was a massive act of negligence and stupidity. Chairs need 4 legs. If it didn’t then the chair should not have been in the restaurant. They knew that it couldn’t be seen when they positioned it under the table. For those who are saying that OP should have checked, hindsight is 20:20 but she is not to blame. Do you check every chair that you sit on, should she have checked that the table had all its legs?

The restaurant still hasn’t been in touch to see if the baby is OK. This is pretty poor form.

If a grandma sat on a broken chair, fell and hit her head would anyone be sympathetic?

So first I’m glad your baby is okay and recognise that was scary. As no physical harm was done beyond immediate shock then I don’t think you have a claim. Hopefully the restaurant will have learned from the incident and you’re fully reasonable in leaving a poor review. Hopefully they will update their high chairs and this won’t happen to anyone else.

My youngest is 6 now but I can't remember ever being able to strap her in without moving a chair tucked into a table?

I'd also shy away from suing an independent business personally - but I get that you're upset, maybe a tad much but honestly can't judge that. We all process things differently and your baby fell - of course that's going to be upsetting.

But short of a missing tooth, bruises, or broken limb idk that they can do much. The staff 100% absolutely need retraining on H&S, so I wouldn't let it go. But I don't think this is a money situation. It's a 'how can we make sure this never happen again?' situation

💐 for you OP and I hope tomorrow is a better day for you and your wee one

I kind of get it. You pre booked so they put the high chair there. They probably cruder fit the fourth leg in and instead of saying crap I can’t get this thing to work they just balanced it against the table and hoped for the best. That is negligence.
The chair didn’t lose the leg whilst the baby was seated in it. The restaurant put a faulty chair, balanced it against the table to try and hide the fault.

I don't think this is a money situation. It's a 'how can we make sure this never happen again?' situation

Don't underestimate the tendency for a money situation to make sure something "never happens again".

That's a very fair point!

Sounds right. So no-one else, not DP or your father, said anything to the staff? And you all just left?

My god, this is breathtakingly grabby. Holding your hand out for this? Just wow

You would be claiming for financial loss. And pain and suffering - from the current position as set out, nothing to claim for.

perhaps a strongly worded letter to the owners?

@BessieBye I understand a bit about the way you feel here. Years ago, DS1 had a near miss (ironically, also sitting in an Antilop) while we were eating in the restaurant section of a large chain store.

A false wall, heavy and solid, fell and smashed into the highchair. The room went silent and DS in that moment was silent. I couldn’t immediately see or process what had happened - I was terrified. DS then started screaming and I managed to get him out of the chair. The angle of the wall against the chair and the fact that the chair was able to slide on the floor meant that it had narrowly missed his head - there was a small gap between the top of his head and the wall.

I was in shock and wasn’t sure what to do in that situation other than to make sure DS was okay. The store’s immediate response wasn’t great either - they just cleared the area and didn’t check on DS. Being generous, perhaps they didn’t realise exactly what had happened.

I was left feeling that I should be doing something, but had no idea what. In the end, I contacted the head office about what had happened and their response was good. They called immediately and arranged a meeting. They apologised and told me what the response as a company was. They had filled out the relevant H&S/incident forms, investigated and discovered why the wall had failed. They had checked the way that the walls were installed at their other branches and it was an isolated installation error.

Their attitude and response was reassuring and went a long way to helping with the shock I felt. The full apology and evidence that it had been taken seriously took away that ‘what if it happened again/to another child’ feeling.

I am sorry that this happened to you and your DS and I hope he is feeling okay now. I suppose this is a really long way of saying that the shock and emotion you are feeling is understandable, and that I think it is normal to not really know what you are ‘supposed’ to do.

I can completely understand why your dad's so furious, it's horrible to see little ones get hurt, and it was an accident, but obviously one that shouldn't have happened.

Worry and upset can all easily come out as anger. I think you should give your dad a few days and not mention legal action and see if he calls down.
I'm glad your dc is ok, it must have been really scary!

My child lost the top of her pinkie finger in a door at school last year aged 6. It was sewn back on under a general anaesthetic, involving100s of micro stitches and months of follow up appointments.

Negligent? Hmmm. Debateable. A health and safety issue. Certainly.

We didn’t go running for a solicitor and compensation. We had a meeting with the school and asked how they could prevent this happening again.

They walked us round and showed us their new door safety features on every single door, installed before my child even returned to school a week after her accident.

Why not ask them to instill a ‘check twice’ protocol to all their restaurants? All high chairs checked over before and after each use. Surely, preventing it happening again is the main motivation?