Of Torts and Tapas

The story of Minnesotans Katie Yokiel and Jonathan Radford gets a bit worse because it turns out that the couple was actually enjoying their final unwed meal before tying the legal knot the following morning. The salmonella apparently hit them not long after the wedding, with its usual quintuple whammy of diarrhea, fever, vomiting, cramps and headaches. We love tapas, but in this case it seems pretty clear it wasn't so much the food of love as fodder for us personal injury lawyers.

Of course, it's tempting to make light of a case like this -- even if none of us would enjoy having our wedding and honeymoon ruined by a truly nasty food-borne illness.  On the other hand, if you've ever experienced even mild food poisoning, you know that it's a pretty powerful illness that makes it difficult or impossible to do much of anything. Salmonella is actually worse and, even in the best cases, takes a lot longer than 24 hours to clear up. In the worst cases it can actually lead to some pretty serious complications. If someone is older or their health is otherwise compromised, it's potentially deadly.

In other words, while we understand owning a restaurant is a very tough business, we're glad there's a civil root to punish restaurants if they flagrantly disregard the public safety. A personal injury lawyer has a stomach too, you know.