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Need Help Suing McDonalds!

Lau said:
but whether or not they use certain ingredients should be clear across the board from McDonalds to a £100 a head restaurant. Being snobbish about what restaurant it is is just, well, snobbish.
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You've probably got more chance in McDs/chain restaurant of finding out exactly what ingredients are in a dish since they are mass-produced and standard portions than in an expensive restuarant where not only might the chef not want to disclose his secrets but where the menu varies so much, there's probably not a 100g contains x/y/z breakdown in existence. You might be able to ask your waiter to ask the chef to let you know if there are any milk products in your proposed dishes but I suspect that's about it.
 
I don't like this whole suing culture we live in, but I do strongly think that you might get a bit of cash out of this. However. First and forthmost expose this somehow. tell the world in as grand a statement you can. Forget suing for the time being. If you expose this and get more people who are in a similar situation to you will only help things. More voices and that.

So do that somehow. Go to TV watchdogs, tell a reporter for a big newspaper. Make a viral ad campaign. Just get people listening first.
 
Applespider said:
You've probably got more chance in McDs/chain restaurant of finding out exactly what ingredients are in a dish since they are mass-produced and standard portions than in an expensive restuarant where not only might the chef not want to disclose his secrets but where the menu varies so much, there's probably not a 100g contains x/y/z breakdown in existence. You might be able to ask your waiter to ask the chef to let you know if there are any milk products in your proposed dishes but I suspect that's about it.
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I've heard of people who have allergies feeling safer to eat in fast food and chain restaurants because of this reason. All the more reason they have a responsibility to disclose their ingredients! If they're going to give the impression of listing their ingredients, they should list all of them.

Then again, presumably the advantage of a restaurant that everything is prepared from scratch on the premises is that the chef should be able to tell you what's in something. I think a lot of restaurants use some pre-prepared things though, so that's not much help.

Then again, I can safely say I've never eaten in a £100 a head restaurant so I don't know what it's like! :( :p
 
This sounds like crap to me, at the risk of sounding too harsh. Yes, McDonalds should fully disclose every ingredient in their products. I hear they are now, if so, what's the big deal? Also, I believe the amounts of dairy ingredients have fallen within the guidelines of safe consumption so unless you can prove that one serving of fries made you violently ill you are SOL and really would be better trying iBlue's suggestion. Unless the illness you may have suffered has left you with a life-long crutch, or has rendered you incapable of ever working or otherwise leading a normal life, why the heck would you want to do this?
 
If legal levels of milk stuff can not be detected, then how can McDs be responsible for ANY milk found in their fries?

I mean, a test to see if the fries would cause a milk allergic reaction, came back negative.

Yet there is still milk in the fries?

But in a legal sense, they are complying with the allergen laws, and thusly you are SOL my friend.
 
skoker said:
(First of all, I'd like to acknowledge the fact that I'm only 16, but a 5 year old is suing, so why can't I?)

I don't know how many of you follow the news, but recently it was revealed by McDonalds, the fast-food empire, that they have been using milk as flavoring in their french fries without indicating this on the ingredients list. For most people this doesn't seem to be a problem, but for me it is, as I'm VERY allergic to milk and milk products, and have become very ill after eating McDonalds food, once even requiring hospitalization for dehydration caused by vomiting and diarrhea.

Anyways, to make a long story short my parents (shock!) told me I should see if I can get something out of them, seeing as they've caused me a lot of physical pain and suffering over the last 13 or so years due to their negligence. I'd like to send them a letter requesting that they settle with me somehow outside of court and so that the media doesn't get involved, but I'm also ready to involve a lawyer if need be.

So I guess my question is this:

What should I ask for, how should I ask for it, and what else do I need to know?

Your help is greatly appreciated with this :D
-skoker
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i too am allergic to milk products, but i have never eaten food from mcdonalds ever, but i feel your pain. finding out you just ate something thats going to make you ill for the next week is extremely depressing.

(btw soya milk gives you man boobs, very high in eustrogen, switch to rice milk or some other alternative if you have no already)

oh and you want to know what elce sucks? i'm allergic to aspirin and the UK government want to put it in the water supply, if they did i would be SCREWED.
 
Sorry for the lack of responses- I've been busy the last few days.

I/we called a lawyer on Saturday, they called us back within an hour (those money-hungry-weekend-working-bastards) and we're (me and the folks) are going in sometime this week to see if we have a case, but the person on the phone seemed to (IMHO sincerely) think we had at least a case for a small amount of compensation.

Pain and suffering, anyone? :cool:

I'll update this thread as updates (duh!) become available.
 
If McDonald's lied about the nutritional content of their food and this omission caused medical harm to someone, they should be held responsible for any medical bills and they should certainly be required to correct their menus to not leave out ANY ingredients.

But I don't think that ANYONE has a right to expect to walk away from this with some sort of huge settlement. I am in the camp of those who believe that you are not entitled to reimbursement for "pain and suffering", since you cannot put a price tag on either of those things.

EDIT: I would like to amend this slightly... I believe that you have to have ASKED for the nutritional information BEFORE you became ill and BEFORE you were aware of the problem in order to be eligible for any remuneration for medical expenses. After all, if you ordered something off the menu of a restaurant and you failed to ask if it had, say, peanuts in it, the restaurant can hardly be held responsible if you have a peanut allergy and react badly to the food.

In either case, McDonald's certainly is responsible for ensuring that their nutritional information is 100% accurate.
 
All this just begs the question, what the bloody hell are the eleven secret herbs & spices, surely they have to disclose it if you are going to eat it.:confused:
 
jadekitty24 said:
This sounds like crap to me, at the risk of sounding too harsh. Yes, McDonalds should fully disclose every ingredient in their products. I hear they are now, if so, what's the big deal?
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The big deal is that, if they were negligent, they potentially caused real injury to perhaps 10's of thousands of people over a dozen years. The If and Potentially parts are yet to be proven, which is what a court of law is for.

If you are caught burgling houses, and the police find swag in your garage from 12 years of burgling houses, do you get off with saying "Right then, I won't do it anymore"?

Or how about this: Some yobbos cudgel you on the way home from work, and leave you tied up in a shed for two days. You miss work, and you seriously fear for your life. If they are caught, should they face criminal charges? Let's say they were hired by a company to put the hurt on you - should you have the right to sue for damages, pain, suffering, loss of income, and punitive damages?

What then is the difference then if a company is negligent and sells you adulterated food that lands you in the hospital attached to an intravenous for 2 days afraid of dying from uncontollable intestinal spasms?

I believe that you have to have ASKED for the nutritional information BEFORE you became ill and BEFORE you were aware of the problem in order to be eligible for any remuneration for medical expenses.
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I don't think that is the standard, clayj. Couple of reasons; as one poster mentioned bfore, there are expectations as to what is in particular foods. Potatoes, yes. Rutabagas, no. Milk in fries? I think that would fall outside the reasonable threshold; esp. as McD has advertised "cooked in 100% vegetable oil" in the past. Also there are (in some juristictions, anyway) legal standards for the permissible contents of foods.

Second is that I have been in Mcdonalds where the nutritional information is posted on the wall or in a book. I have also asked for and received the info over the counter. So the information is published, and allegedly was false. The plaintiff could contend that they asked their (friend, parent) if it were safe and received information based on the false ingredient list that had been published. They need not have asked for it in person if it was already published.
 
To clarify: I did ask for a list of ingredients at McD's (as I do at every restaurant) and checked them before consuming ANY of their food. When I was young, my parents did this for me.
 
Airforce said:
Hey kid, you should check out google news:

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=mcdonalds lawsuit&sa=N&tab=wn

You should jump on one of the bigger lawsuits people are filing.

My burger better not go up a penny, so here is hoping you don't get a dime :)
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LMFAO! That's classic.
You have no case. But maybe you can use the same lawyer for this "case" as you used for the sale of that mac accessory store. You know the same lawyer that said you didn't need to fill out even one sheet of paper to complete the transaction and sell off stock to buyers all over the place? I bet he'd go ahead and sue for you. One sucky lawyer for one sucky case. I wouldn't spend your "settlement" just yet. And you don't get pain and suffering because of this. You've been watching too much TV.
 
uggg I agee this french fry thing is unethical that McD's did but I can't say I feel very sorry if it made you sick and you went back...many times.

Seriously booze makes me ill some times, should I sue the brewery for my hangover? No because it's my choice to drink too much
 
skoker said:
I'm pretty sure when I was five I didn't have any control where or what I ate.
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then sue your parents. McDonlands didnt force you to eat their food, your parents took you.

You also went to McDonalnds everytime, your choice, not theirs. Did you ever ask them to show you whats in their food or did you never do the research?

Also, yes you can sue them. Do you have $500/Hr you can spare to hire a semi big lawyer? if so, go for it and have fun :)
 
How can so many people miss the point, it gots nothing to do with his choice to eat McDonalds absaloutely nothing, all this is about is an undissclosed ingrediant that made him ill, do you know how many people go through this sort of thing for years before it is figured out? I do i am one of them
 
barneygumble said:
How can so many people miss the point, it gots nothing to do with his choice to eat McDonalds absaloutely nothing, all this is about is an undissclosed ingrediant that made him ill, do you know how many people go through this sort of thing for years before it is figured out? I do i am one of them
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Ok how many? :rolleyes: give me a number!
 
dornoforpyros said:
Seriously booze makes me ill some times, should I sue the brewery for my hangover? No because it's my choice to drink too much
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You're completely missing the point. People know ahead of time that if they drink too much they're going to get sick. Skoker (or his parents) looked over the list of ingredients that McDo's is legally required to disclose, and saw nothing wrong. McDo's is required to list everything that goes into those french fries, even food coloring. They didn't list any milk products. If skoker really did have multiple hospital visits because of this, I think he deserves some sort of compensation. This is like a construction company not telling the workers that there's asbestos in the building, and the workers getting asbestosis 20 years later.
 
dornoforpyros said:
Ok how many? :rolleyes: give me a number!
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11 million people in USA with food allergies. Take me a bit longer to find the numbers for Canada but likely to be about 1 million.

I can guarantee that not one of those people looked at a food item for the first time and intuitively recognized that they would get sick from it. Or had a meal, got sick a minute or an hour or a day later, and could pinpoint the very menu item that did it - was it the flavoring agent on the fries, the burger, the flavoring on the burger, the cheese in the burger, the emulsifier in the ketchup on the fries, the special sauce, the wheat in the bun or the sesame seeds, the aspartame in the Diet Coke, the thickening agent in the filling of the apple turnover, or one of the three dozen ingredients in the Mars bar you had 30 minutes before lunch? Or was it a contaminant like a mould on the bread or rancidity in the peanuts sprinked on the sundae, which will only show up once out of twenty times you eat that same menu item?

Most people take years and some take many hospital and doctor visits before their specific allergen(s) is(are) nailed down. Some die first. Others die despite taking every possible precaution.

Sarcastic smiley back at you... :rolleyes:
 
CanadaRAM said:
Most people take years and some take many hospital and doctor visits before their specific allergen(s) is(are) nailed down. Some die first. Others die despite taking every possible precaution.
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Eating out, particularly at fast food/chain places is a bit like russian roulette. You never know when you're going to run into the latest strain of undercooked Jack in the Box e-coli burgers or have Chi Chi's Hepatitis A salsa on your chimichanga.

This is particularly the case for those with food allergies or other dietary restrictions. My son who is about to turn 5 has severe milk and peanut allergies. Unless he outgrows it, he'll never enjoy a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, got to pizza and ice cream parties, etc... My mom is diabetic, and I can't count the number of times she has ordered food in a restaurant, asked 10 times if there is any sugar in the food only to be told first no, then guess what there is some, but it's just a little bit....

In this case, I think that McD has truly done all they could legally be bound to do. They have run the tests they can run, before and after the disclosure, and the common milk or gluten allergens are below the level of detection. Perhaps the people affected are allergic to something else in the fries, or in the meal, like that particular strain of potato or the ink in the fry bag?

People make the food in these places, and people make mistakes. They may not wash their hands between handling a cheeseburger and your fries. So no matter how milk free the fires were made you could still develop a reaction.

I thnk the people that will be more successful in their lawsuits will be those who avoid dairy derived ingredients for religious or other beliefs. Vegans, hindus and jews probably have a stronger case here for their own reasons than those with food allergies. However why anyone from any of those groups would eat at McD regularly remains a mystery to me.

B
 
skoker said:
(First of all, I'd like to acknowledge the fact that I'm only 16, but a 5 year old is suing, so why can't I?)

I don't know how many of you follow the news, but recently it was revealed by McDonalds, the fast-food empire, that they have been using milk as flavoring in their french fries without indicating this on the ingredients list. For most people this doesn't seem to be a problem, but for me it is, as I'm VERY allergic to milk and milk products, and have become very ill after eating McDonalds food, once even requiring hospitalization for dehydration caused by vomiting and diarrhea.

Anyways, to make a long story short my parents (shock!) told me I should see if I can get something out of them, seeing as they've caused me a lot of physical pain and suffering over the last 13 or so years due to their negligence. I'd like to send them a letter requesting that they settle with me somehow outside of court and so that the media doesn't get involved, but I'm also ready to involve a lawyer if need be.

So I guess my question is this:

What should I ask for, how should I ask for it, and what else do I need to know?

Your help is greatly appreciated with this :D
-skoker
Click to expand...


OK Skoker, you may deserve a small pay-off for the first couple of times, but let me undetstand something: you have been eating at the big M's for 13 years and feeling sick most of the time and yet you continued to eat there? I don't know about the US, but I am pretty sure that in the UK you'd get a tiny pay-off (OK enough for a new Mac), but nothing for the long-term..
 
adk said:
You're completely missing the point. People know ahead of time that if they drink too much they're going to get sick. Skoker (or his parents) looked over the list of ingredients that McDo's is legally required to disclose, and saw nothing wrong. McDo's is required to list everything that goes into those french fries, even food coloring. They didn't list any milk products. If skoker really did have multiple hospital visits because of this, I think he deserves some sort of compensation. This is like a construction company not telling the workers that there's asbestos in the building, and the workers getting asbestosis 20 years later.
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Granted I haven't eaten McD's in probaly 6-7 years now, but it seems to me every time one of my friends does they admit to feeling like crap after. So seems to me people know "hey, if I eat deep fried lard & sugar, I'll get sick" is about the same.

My biggest problem with all this is people refusing to take responsibility for their own actions. If you eat McD's and your hospitalized by it then commonsense would say don't eat it again...ever. But because McD's has millions of dollars than it must be their fault.

Let's face it, there are plenty of things out there that you do to your body that will cause harm, smoking, booze, drugs, unprotected sex. The fact is eating McD's is included in things that arean't good for your body, so when you choose to partake that's your decision, not McD's.
 
jacobj said:
OK Skoker, you may deserve a small pay-off for the first couple of times, but let me undetstand something: you have been eating at the big M's for 13 years and feeling sick most of the time and yet you continued to eat there? I don't know about the US, but I am pretty sure that in the UK you'd get a tiny pay-off (OK enough for a new Mac), but nothing for the long-term..
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I can agree with that. I'm allergic to quite a few things, including peanut oil. Recently, confectioners have been compelled to list that items have been manufactured in a plant that handles peanuts and that's great.

My trouble is that, when I go into a restaurant and they fry fish in peanut oil, no one knows what kind of oil it is, unless it's a McDonald's or another fast food place.

However, if I've become ill at a place more than twice, I wouldn't go back there, even if they paid me.

skoker:

I'm not even sure that you can prove an allergic reaction to anything but meds and even then, it's tough. So long after the fact, it's almost impossible. While I don't like law suits, I think that you should press McDonald's somewhat. Personally, I would discount any real trouble since you kept returning to eat there.
 
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