The Chipotle chain has recently had problems with a bunch of their restaurants-they have had to close several because people have gotten sick from eating there-norovirus, e-coli, etc. have large numbers of people filed lawsuits against them? Suppose you got sick…and you think that you got ill because of a meal at your local Chipotle-is it a wise thing to file a lawsuit now? Do the court records show a abnormal increse in the number of legal actions taken against the chain?
Nice title. :rolleyes: Chipotle’s food wasn’t spiked by someone else, like the Tylenol poisonings, so they’re hardly “woes” that just happened to them. And heaven forfend anyone expect compensation when their lunch makes them violently ill; anyone who does must be greedily “taking advantage” and the lawyers who’d take their cases simply must be shysters.
Apparently wells got poisoned along with burritos. 
Do you know if they have been sued by anyone? Unless you die or suffer a long term incapacitation what are you suing for, the cost of your meal and a few days of illness? I think you’ll have a hard time finding a lawyer to take that case.
Ending up in the ER with dehydration, even briefly, can cost thousands of dollars.
“Almost 500 people around the country have become sick from Chipotle food since July” according to this Bloomberg article. Seems like self-induced woes to say the least.
No obvious signs of shysters but some glaring evidence of food handling incompetence.
Since the OP is asking for opinions, let’s move this to IMHO.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
Oh well, here it comes.
Sure, usually covered by insurance but they’d probably settle without a fight if it wasn’t.
These incidents usually result in a sales drop for the chain that can take a long time to recover from. Throw in a pile of lawsuits and they could go under.
Good, and let it be a lesson.
Maybe, but many insured people have large deductibles and co-pays, especially for the ER. And imagine if your entire family was hit because you all ate there together?
Until I switched back to the PPO, I would have been on the hook for $2,500 before my insurance even kicked in.
I’ve got top notch insurance. We’d be heavily subject to the Cadillac tax in 2016 if that hadn’t just been postponed.
I had a brief ER visit a couple months ago. They did relatively little for me. Certainly less billable activities than what would be done for a severe food poisoning. My cost, *after *my Cadillac insurance paid their part, was $1500.
For me that’s an annoyance. For a lot of people that’d be the grocery money for a couple months.
To be sure there’ll be some egregious whiners wanting millions for pain and suffering, or the embarrassment of vomiting in public. Jerks.
Didn’t we just have a huge kerfuffle over the last few years about how many Americans don’t in fact have good health insurance? And still don’t. I thought I remembered so.
I know from experience, if there is a way to ‘take advantage’ of a situation someone will find a way to do it 
Yes. How dare they want to make the company meaningfully less likely to do something like this again. Why, there ought to be a law! We can’t have lawsuits capable of actually effecting change in the world!
I’m afraid you misunderstood me completely.
If there’s a pattern here then Chipotle needs (and completely deserves) a thorough management-ectomy to remove the rotten processes and people that led to this. Even if all we’ve got are a series of rogue or sloppy franchisees, those folks need to be re-educated, monitored, and if necessary removed from the industry.
At the same time, somebody deciding to try to strike it rich by pretending they got sick is despicable.
Using tort lawsuits to enforce sanitary laws & good corporate governance is like considering the Powerball to be an effective social welfare program just because most winners are poor.
Fining Chipotle millions to “encourage the others” might be a darn good idea. Handing that windfall to some random burrito buyer from Memphis or Cleveland or wherever is insanity.
no, we don’t misunderstand you. there are people who are paid hourly who also don’t get paid if they’re not at work, regardless of the reason. Sick? you don’t get paid. Kid is sick? you don’t get paid. Not all of us are so privileged to have salaried jobs where the only thing we’d have to worry about is the deductible for our insurance.
suing to recover lost wages and expenses is entirely reasonable. Nobody (but the ambulance chasers) is looking to “strike it rich.” So if you think a lot of people are hoping to “strike it rich” by “pretending to be sick,” then I’m sure you’ll be able to show us some examples.
Bolding mine.
I agree 100% with this. My point up-thread about insurance was entirely about how damn expensive this event can be for a lot of even well-insured Americans. Much less the many who aren’t well-insured. And how the folks even further up-thread who said the injured deserve no compensation were IMO totally off-base.
I’m sorry I’ve done such a poor job of making my views understood. My part in this hijack is over.
no, we understand your views just fine. the problem is your views are reprehensible.
You’re the only of the two of us contemplating fraud. Mentioning it here is just muddying the waters.
My point is, unless we do get some massive payouts, what incentive does Chipotle’s have to change anything at all? If you can reasonably budget for a lawsuit, like you can budget for occasional car troubles, you don’t need to make any actual changes whatsoever.
These are both perfectly valid points.
What we really need is public health regulatory agencies with serious funding and enforcement teeth. Lawsuits by private parties are much less efficient, but better than nothing.
Those sickened by E. coli and norovirus shouldn’t be suing Chipotle - they should be going after the biotech terrorists who poisoned the food.
Chipotle was targeted by companies who resented its anti-GMO stance. Get the details here. :eek: