What is the name of your state? North Carolina
My boyfriend was physically assaulted while playing what he thought was a friendly game of pool at a local restaurant/bar. He turned to grab his cigarette, and the next thing he knew he was whacked in the back of the neck with a pool stick by the guy he was playing pool with (he didn't know the guy, the guy just asked him if he wanted to play a game of pool). He was knocked out (he doesn't know for how long) and when he woke up he was covered in his own blood and had clear fluid coming out of his nose. The attacker had been continuously beating him while he was unconcious. When he awoke, the attacker continued to beat him, and he went unconcious again. The next time he awoke, the bartender was over him. The bartender said he was convulsing. The pool room at the restaurant is separate from everything else, and the only other people around were the attacker's forman from work and the forman's wife, and of course they did nothing. When my boyfriend awoke, the forman and his wife had smirks on their faces and of course the attacker had already left. My b-friend thinks he was out for maybe 2 hours (he calculated the time from the time he started playing pool and how long he had been playing before being attacked) and the fact that the bartender never came into that pool room to check on the patrons is unacceptable (I use to bartend in NC, and I know the laws about bartending; a bartender is suppose to keep an eye on ALL customers to prevent these things). The cops finally showed up, and my boyfriend told them that the attacker had already left, but his forman was still in the pool room, and he told the cops to go in there to talk to him so they could find out who the guy was and find him and press charges. The cops told him that he didn't need to tell them how to do their job, and they proceeded to question him as if he was the criminal!!! Of course, during this time the forman and his wife snuck out the back door of the restaurant. Another officer finally went inside and he came back out with the pool stick that the attacker used...it was in three pieces!!! Pool sticks are not easy to break! A few weeks later, a friend of ours came over to our house and said that he went to the restaurant twice that week and brought the situation up to two different bartenders (one being the bartender that was working during the incident). He brought it up in a way such as, "Oh, I heard about someone getting assulted here the other night." Anyway, both of the bartenders told our friend the same thing: the attacker wasn't even allowed in that restaurant because he had been kicked out twice before for assaulting other people!!! My boyfriend had to get stitches in his chin, and he's been to a chiropractor. The chiropractor told him that if he had been hit one more time in the neck he would've ended up like Christopher Reeve, or worse, he could've died. He's also going to have a lifetime of problems and pain in his neck. In any event, we are trying to find out what we can do as far as suing the restaurant for negligence, and suing the police department of the town we live possibly for the same thing. We've never been through anything like this before (and we've never sued anyone before) and we'd like to get some advice. Also, we'd like to know who the best lawyer for the job is because we don't want to pay a lot of money for some hack that won't even take the time to get to know my boyfriend, and we don't want someone that isn't going to get him the largest settlement he can get. Any advice would be helpful! Thank you!
My boyfriend was physically assaulted while playing what he thought was a friendly game of pool at a local restaurant/bar. He turned to grab his cigarette, and the next thing he knew he was whacked in the back of the neck with a pool stick by the guy he was playing pool with (he didn't know the guy, the guy just asked him if he wanted to play a game of pool). He was knocked out (he doesn't know for how long) and when he woke up he was covered in his own blood and had clear fluid coming out of his nose. The attacker had been continuously beating him while he was unconcious. When he awoke, the attacker continued to beat him, and he went unconcious again. The next time he awoke, the bartender was over him. The bartender said he was convulsing. The pool room at the restaurant is separate from everything else, and the only other people around were the attacker's forman from work and the forman's wife, and of course they did nothing. When my boyfriend awoke, the forman and his wife had smirks on their faces and of course the attacker had already left. My b-friend thinks he was out for maybe 2 hours (he calculated the time from the time he started playing pool and how long he had been playing before being attacked) and the fact that the bartender never came into that pool room to check on the patrons is unacceptable (I use to bartend in NC, and I know the laws about bartending; a bartender is suppose to keep an eye on ALL customers to prevent these things). The cops finally showed up, and my boyfriend told them that the attacker had already left, but his forman was still in the pool room, and he told the cops to go in there to talk to him so they could find out who the guy was and find him and press charges. The cops told him that he didn't need to tell them how to do their job, and they proceeded to question him as if he was the criminal!!! Of course, during this time the forman and his wife snuck out the back door of the restaurant. Another officer finally went inside and he came back out with the pool stick that the attacker used...it was in three pieces!!! Pool sticks are not easy to break! A few weeks later, a friend of ours came over to our house and said that he went to the restaurant twice that week and brought the situation up to two different bartenders (one being the bartender that was working during the incident). He brought it up in a way such as, "Oh, I heard about someone getting assulted here the other night." Anyway, both of the bartenders told our friend the same thing: the attacker wasn't even allowed in that restaurant because he had been kicked out twice before for assaulting other people!!! My boyfriend had to get stitches in his chin, and he's been to a chiropractor. The chiropractor told him that if he had been hit one more time in the neck he would've ended up like Christopher Reeve, or worse, he could've died. He's also going to have a lifetime of problems and pain in his neck. In any event, we are trying to find out what we can do as far as suing the restaurant for negligence, and suing the police department of the town we live possibly for the same thing. We've never been through anything like this before (and we've never sued anyone before) and we'd like to get some advice. Also, we'd like to know who the best lawyer for the job is because we don't want to pay a lot of money for some hack that won't even take the time to get to know my boyfriend, and we don't want someone that isn't going to get him the largest settlement he can get. Any advice would be helpful! Thank you!