Totino’s and Jeno’s Pizza Recall: Food Poisoning Lawyer Bill Marler Weighs In

Seattle, WA:"General Mills Totino's and Jeno's pizza E.coli outbreak is a relatively small outbreak in relationship to others," says food poisoning lawyer Bill Marler. " Therefore, wage loss and medical bills would be a small amount of money to pay for goodwill in this case." Although small by outbreak standards, the [frozen pizza recall ] sent many consumers to hospital.


Other companies in the past have done well to make restitution--those that step up to the plate and reassert their desire to make food safety their utmost priority and take care of their customers will likely keep their customers.


Marler cites Jack in the box and Odwalla Beverages, (both e coli) Chi-Chis Mexican restaurant chain (hepatitis A outbreak) and Sheetz chain of stores (salmonella) as examples. All these companies paid medical expenses to their customers sickened by outbreaks caused by their product. "Even companies like ConAgra have made the same offer, both in peanut butter and pot pie litigation," adds Marler.


"Stepping up and dealing with these issues, such as wage loss and medical bills, doesn't mean the company won't get sued, because some people may have medical bills that are not yet known," he says. "However, for the most part, when companies do take care of their customers, many never file a lawsuit at all."


Sounds like a win-win situation, with the exception of the plaintiff's lawyer. "Well, the plaintiff's loser does lose out in some respects but that isn't necessarily a bad thing," explains Marler. "We want to do what is in the client's best interest; if General Mills pays the medical bills, it is a positive step."


Marler also points out that a company responsible for an outbreak should pay bills only to those they know for a fact were sickened by that company's product. That can be determined either by a stool culture or proof of purchase because paying non- legitimate claims doesn't benefit anyone. "We spend a lot of time making sure the claims we bring forward are in fact provable --we turn a lot of people away."