You can't sue if your injury is self inflicted

[customersruinmylife]

I don't get what was up with this lady. The bar wasn't even busy. She positioned herself inbetween two customers who had been there longer than her, and tried to make it look as though she was there first. Co-worker and I clocked on to this, and proceeded to ignore her until it was her turn.

Within 30 seconds of her being stood at the bar, she started sighing, tapping the bar, and whistling to herself. After I went to a customer that was there before her, she let out the worlds biggest sigh, and buried her hands into her face, muttering "Am I ever going to get fucking served??" under her breath.

I went to the next customer. She let out an even bigger sigh and went to rest her head on the bar, as though she was pretending to fall asleep, muttering "I've been here for fucking ageeeeessss"

Seeing that co-worker was free, she put her head up to get her attention. Co-worker ignored her. The lady then decided to rest her head on the bar again, but this time, she full on slammed it down, and headbutted the bar.

SC: OW! I JUST HURT MYSELF ON YOUR BAR! I THINK THIS CALLS FOR FREE DRINKS.
Me: Are you kidding?
SC: I JUST HURT MYSELF WAITING TO BE SERVED, AND IF YOU DON'T GIVE ME WHAT I WANT, I'LL SUE.
Me: Try it. There's a camera there, there, there and there that just caught your moment of stupidity.
SC: Fine...I won't sue...I'll just have a pint of cider.
Me: A pint of cider....??
SC: Please.

I have never seen such a fat lip on a 40 year old woman before.

[NateTheChops]

Do you want some animal crackers and applesauce to go with that sweaty?

Sorry, I can't think of any other way to respond to such blatant childishness. I'd be afraid to serve her anything harder than straight tapwater less she really hurt herself and hold the bar responsible.

[South Texan]

The lady then decided to rest her head on the bar again, but this time, she full on slammed it down, and headbutted the bar.

Dang. I have to stop violating Rule #1.

Now to clean the coffee off the monitor....

[AirHostess]

HAHAHAHAHA. What a daft cow. You really do get the worst customers ever!

[Victoria J]

That's priceless.

Mind you - your stories always make me laugh. Terrible customers, but I think as bar staff you get a bit more leeway to stick up for yourself so they aren't so depressing. Plus I get the feeling you're good at your job, you're nasty to the idiots who deserve it without becoming bitter and being rude to the rest of the customers.

I think I've mentioned on here before that I've advised similar idiots. And in particular a meeting we had with a local solicitors firm. We give basic unqualifeid free legal advice to anyone in the area, which naturally means we are in a very good position to refer people who need more in depth help to solicitors firms. We happily refer people who qualify for free help, but just give out lists of solicitors if it's work the customer will have to pay for. Which doesn't stop the solicitors pressing us for the more lucrative referrals. Personal injury cases get them money.

Me - Me
S - Solicitor.

S - And we're happy to take any referrals for personal injury cases
Me - Well, we give your details to anyone who we believe has a personal injury case (i.e they go on the list).
S - You should send ANYONE over to us
Me - As I say we will give your details where we believe there is a case.
S -
S - Well, er, cases should be properly assessed (politely trying not to tell me I'm not qualified to make the judgement though his face is saying it loudly enough)
Me - We would never try and judge the merits of the case. However we would expect them to identify a loss or injury, and a reason someone was at fault. (In fact if they suggest that when talking to us we suggest they see a personal injury solicitor even if they haven't thought about it, and we help them identify a loss, or how someone can be at fault).
S - Still glaring a bit
Me - I don't think you want the others. Last week I didn't send you someone who wanted to sue because he'd injured himself.
S -

After that he didn't object to me keeping the idiots away from them.

The particular customer I was referring to was a cook. He'd set fire to himself. He said himself that it was not his employers fault, and they could have done nothing to prevent him doing it. He just had a clumsy day.

Could he sue ?

No.

The employer also demoted him to a secondary chefs role. Howver as he was so incapable of doing the original job that he'd, you know - set himself on fire (I think he'd damaged their kitchen too), we figured they could get away with that.



That was the worst case I had - but I've seen similar. You fell over on a flat surface - you're an idiot not a victim. Ignored a sign ? Same thing.

Also in employment cases - if they have a telephone directory sized dossier of print outs from the porn you've downloaded onto your work computer - that's a fair dismissal. And that's one case I'd have preferred not to see the paperwork in.

You do wonder sometimes what happened to personal responsibility. But then I think that there are probably more people who do get hurt by other's and just take it in their stride. Including some who should sue but don't.

(Around the same time I had a customer who said they'd injured themselves at work, entirely there own fault, etc. Wanted to know if they could any financial help for the time off he'd had to take. However when he described what had happened it wasn't his fault. He cut his hands badly because the employer was re-using chipped and broken tableware. Him I sent to a solicitor).

Victoria J

[Bella_Vixen]

You fell over on a flat surface - you're an idiot not a victim.

I prefer to think that I'm just clumsy.

[RayvenQ]

Would have been funny if it was the flip up section of the bar that she tried it on, but unbeknownst to her, someone lifted it up in the time between her taking her head off it and then trying to slam it down.

You should have siad that you'd sue her from criminal damage of your bar

Reminds me of the time i saw a guy measuring a flagstone with a penny, one corner of it was raised, about a quarter of the width of the penny high. he said he was doing it because his wife tripped and fell over it.

Guess what the flagstone was right outside of too (and probably more reason for her tripping than the flagstone)

[Victoria J]

I prefer to think that I'm just clumsy.

My Great Aunty was always said too be someone who "would trip over an invisible matchstick".

If I didn't make myself clear above the idiocy comes from the blaming others more than the falling over.

I don't judge self inflicted injuries otherwise. I currently have an inch long burn from using a bread machine. Used over gloves, took pan out of bread machine, shook pan, bread failed to come out. So I leant right over to peer down and see if the handle for the pan was in the way. No idea why I didn't look at the side nearest me - instead of craning my neck right over a very very hot pan and making myself scream in pain.

I guess I AM an idiot

I also knew someone, a priest, who was so clumsy he went for a walk in his own garden with the dog, and when he returned his housekeeper thought he'd been mugged because of how long he'd been missing and how badly scratched and bruised he was. He has actually fallen into the rose bush and got stuck ! (This was someone who get sent for tests because they were worried he had parkinsons, but turned out just to be clumsy ). Not someone to blame others though, and not an idiot.

Victoria J

[RayvenQ]

I've done that with a baking tray, cloth over my hand and my forearm, lifting a tray out (having to use my other hand to close the oven, cloth covering 4 inches of my forearm, the tray slipped and the edge of it was resting on my arm for several seconds, what's worse worse that i couldn't put it down as there was sod all room anywhere, couldn't drop it since it was food to go out, so I just had to stand there for like 30 seconds hearing and smelling my skin crispify while a coworker cleared enough space for me to put the damned thing down.

That happened 7 years ago, the scar is still visible.

[Food Lady]

Ooooooooooooooh that makes ME hurt for you!!

VictoriaJ, are we related? I am so accident-prone. I've tripped over my own foot, broken my arm by falling off a chair I was dancing on, and given myself a black eye by a tether ball. (ball tethered to a pole-wierd 1970s playground staple)

[KhirasHY]

Maybe it's just me, but I can't understand why it's so easy for some people to screw up the "gravity" thing. I don't mean just tripping either, we all do that...I mean things like winter.

For instance, I slip on a patch of ice on a sidewalk in the middle of 0º weather in winter, I say to myself "fark, I need to pay more attention", dust myself off, and continue on my way.

That said, I just spent 3 years having to obsessively hunt for ice patches incase someone gets a nice lawyer idea and sets out to "accidently" step on some ice that's out there to sue us.

And my BF asks me why I think that most humans are just glorified pieces of meat that I haven't killed yet.

[Fenrus]

And my BF asks me why I think that most humans are just glorified pieces of meat that I haven't killed yet.

I think the better question is "Why doesn't he think that yet?"

[BaristaTrav]

Funny story. From what I know, she can "sue" for whatever she likes. But from what I understand about the UK legal system, is that if a judge deems the lawsuit totally frivolous, along with getting the case thrown out she'd get stuck with paying all court costs and the defendant's legal fees.

[TWOLF]

Yeah but there are cases where people have hurt themselves, sued a company, and won. there was a woman who broke her ankle in a furniture store after tripping over a child. She sued the store and won. The bad thing is that the kid was hers.

[Victoria J]

Funny story. From what I know, she can "sue" for whatever she likes. But from what I understand about the UK legal system, is that if a judge deems the lawsuit totally frivolous, along with getting the case thrown out she'd get stuck with paying all court costs and the defendant's legal fees.

Actually there are 2 problems.

Most personal injury cases have solicitors acting on a no win no fee basis - and they normally won't take the case unless there's at least a 50% chance of success. Most cases are settled out of court, often between insurance companies. It doesn't tend to be that similar to the small claims process she can use herself.

If she's trying to claim under £5000 she can use the small claims procedure and act without a solicitor without much difficulty. It's not really set up for peronal injury cases though. Normally part of the small claims thing is that there are very limited costs - so even if you lose you can't end up paying full legal costs.

As you say the exception is for the really frivolous cases. It's unusual but this is the sort of thing that might just qualify.

I've only ever seen one case where people got hit with full fees in the small claim. Their claim was both friviolous and considered vexatious - they got hit with costs plus an order banning them from making more claims against the company. They'd made 3 claims against the same energy company, one where they might have had a point, one pretty pointless - and then they sued because having 3 consecutive bills showing them in credit they believed they should be entitled to the sum total (I.e 1st bill showed £20 credit, 3 months later next bill showed £40 credit, 3 months later it's £70 credit. They sued because the company would only refund £70 not £130. Really. Even when rolling totals on bills were explained they would not accept it and to this day probably consider themselves victims).

Yeah but there are cases where people have hurt themselves, sued a company, and won. there was a woman who broke her ankle in a furniture store after tripping over a child. She sued the store and won. The bad thing is that the kid was hers.

Urban legend. Sorry. From this site it's easy to believe plenty of parents would try, but if so the courts are dealing with it better than you'd think.

Also apparently a plot in an episode of Boston Legal.

Victoria J.