Q&A: You go to a nice restaurant & find a roach in your food..You inform management that you'll be suing.?

Panama Joe

If you win the lawsuit, you'll be paying tons of money in court costs and lawyer's fees. What you end up getting is nowhere near the 100 grand.

If your purpose is to put the business out of business, then proceed with the suit. If your purpose is to seek recompense for the nasty bug, then take the money.

old school

you won't be offered $100,000. nowhere near it.

NeoNerd

If someone offered me 100 grand for that, of course I'd take it.

They'd just "offer" you $100,000.00? In what dream world do you live in? That would never happen. They'd let you sue, hope you lose and let the chips fall where they may. And the settlement wouldn't be near the 100 grand you dream of.
If you think suing businesses is some form of get rich quick scheme, think again. You can lose, and lose big. And if you're planning anything like planting the roach - FORGET it. Does the word "jail" mean anything to you?
Point out the roach, spit out your food. Don't pay for it. Go to your local newspaper and speak to the reviewer. Go to your local board of health or whoever licenses restaurants in your locale and report it to them. Let them pay a little visit to the restaurant. Where there is one roach, there are a hundred, so they'll get shut down, and you'll have done humanity a favor.
Take your payment in good deeds.

Bob B

As you would never get 100 grand in a lawsuit for something like this, I'd take the money.

I'd probably still complain to the health department though.

Badge203

They wouldn't offer you anything except a refund on the meal you found the bug in

There IS NO LAWSUIT here, so no hush money would be coming your way or even offered, and you could be arrested if you made the suggestion to them that for a certain amount of money you would not tell anybody. That is called extortion which is illegal

You suffered no loss other than the cost of your meal which they refunded you, so you have no lawsuit

Yo it's Me

I doubt they would offer that kind of money for something so minor. The hush money as you call it, would not exceed the cost of the defense, since no damage was done to you.

address man

This question is obviously hypothetical, since there is no way that happened. But, for f--k's sake, let's say that it did:

You don't sue them. The reason that you don't sue them is that the judge will laugh you out of court.

They're not going to give you $100,000. If you want, go online and post a bad review and tell others not to eat there. Don't pay for your meal or get a refund.

Do you have any idea how many restaurants, especially in cities, have the occasional roach?

Tom W

Its why I keep a couole of pet roaches so that I can extort money from restaurants. I am your hero.

Patricia C

I would take it because I couldn't win a suit. All they have to say is that you put it in there yourself so that you could sue them. Case closed.

Oops suspended again

They wont offer you any money. You would not win a lawsuit because you found a roach in your food. It would be unfortunate but unless they put a roach in your food on purpose and you can prove it. You have no basis to file a lawsuit.

Jonny L

$100,000 is quite a lot of money, I'd just take it. Why would you be greedy and selfish to take more money and probably close down the restaurant making the staff lose their jobs. Surely giving away $100,000 is enough for them to actually fix the problem.

Reform Artist

Interesting question... Lets address this in parts. 1) If you have dinner or any meal in a fine restaurant there will be a minuscule chance of there being any type of unintentional foreign matter in your food. The very worst you could possibly expect to find will be a hair, earning you in most cases a comped meal and a visit from the chef. This is primarily due to the number of people involved with the preparation of your meal. In most upscale establishments the last person to inspect the dish before you receive it will be the chef, and as any fault in the dish reflects negatively on him or her as well as the establishment you can believe they would not allow even the slightest fauxpas. 2) While it is appropriate to inform management when there is any issue with a meal or service, good as well as bad, producing a roach, rat, mouse or other such object in conjunction with food items carry stiff legal penalties (search food safety, packaged and prepared) and will most definitely ensure that there will a call to the police and health department. 3) If you are offered any cash money, you can better that it will be to solidify charges against you for extortion, fraud, and/or a myriad of other criminal offenses.
There are quite a few incidences in case law for this type of fraud, with hefty penalties. You may end up paying the establishment and chef for defamation.
Try something else.

Senor Snarky

You take the money. There's no way you're going to win a suit against them just because there was a roach in your food.

Knuth B

I take the 'hush money' and sue them. That way I win, twice.

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