E. Coli Poisoning Compensation Claims

The team here at McCarthy + Co Solicitors LLP has extensive experience in bringing successful public liability claims, including cases involving serious illness due to contaminated food or water. A claim can be based on negligence, where a business failed to take reasonable care over hygiene, food safety, or water treatment. Where contaminated food is involved, it may also be treated as a defective product under the Liability for Defective Products Act 1991, which can allow a claim against the producer or supplier without the need to prove negligence, and consumer law requires that food sold to you is fit to eat. Circumstances that can give rise to a claim include:

• inadequate food handling, storage, or cooking by a restaurant, takeaway, or other food business;
• unsafe food production or processing, including contaminated ingredients or water, or poor sanitation;
• a contaminated public or private water supply, through insufficient treatment;
• contamination linked to farming or animal contact, such as at an open or petting farm; and
• poor hygiene in a school, crèche, hospital, or other institution.

If you have suffered serious illness due to contaminated food or water and would like to discuss your case, you can arrange a time to speak with a solicitor here by completing our confidential online form.

How E. coli causes serious illness

Most strains of E. coli are harmless, but certain strains, known as VTEC or STEC, produce a powerful toxin that can cause severe illness. Symptoms range from stomach cramps and diarrhoea, which may be bloody, to more serious complications. The most serious of these is haemolytic uraemic syndrome, which can cause kidney failure and is especially dangerous for young children and older people. Because the illness can be so serious, and occasionally has long-term effects, prompt medical attention is essential, both for your health and because it creates the medical record on which any claim depends.

Proving the source

The most challenging part of an E. coli claim is usually proving that a particular source caused your illness. Establishing this depends heavily on evidence and on acting quickly. Laboratory testing, typically of a stool sample, can confirm the specific strain of E. coli involved, and the timing of your symptoms can be matched against the known incubation period. Where your illness is part of a wider outbreak, that connection can be powerful, particularly as the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, the Health Service Executive, and public health authorities investigate outbreaks, and can now use whole genome sequencing to link individual cases to a specific food business or source. Reporting your illness, and any suspected source, to your GP and to the Environmental Health Service helps to ensure it is properly investigated and recorded. We work with medical and scientific evidence to build the link between the source and your illness.