Legal Groundup

Legal Studies from the ground up

Application Excercise 3c

1. The obstacles that Monika would have faced in bringing the case as a plaintiff independently included her age, her financial capacity and her ongoing disabilities.

2. The party that had the burden of proof in this case was the plaintiff (Monika’s father on behalf of Monika). Obstacles faced by the Samaans in this case included gathering the evidence and witnesses to prove that they had bought the chicken wrap from KFC and that the store did not comply with KFC food handling standards, as well as their financial capacity.

3. The standard of proof in this case was on the balance of probabilities. Monika’s father (on behalf of Monika) needed to convince the court that their claims were more likely than not to be true. An alternative explanation for Monika’s illness included Salmonella bacteria carried on one of the other chicken meals that the family had purchased.

4. Students should list evidence such as records to support the claim they had bought a chicken wrap from KFC, evidence to prove that the store did not comply with KFC food handling standards, medical evidence to support the claim that Monika contracted salmonella after eating the chicken wrap. Students might also suggest that, as Monika’s lawyer, other evidence that could be investigated to substantiate the claim might include any other customers affected by the store’s chicken wraps (were there other cases of Salmonella?), and any evidence of attempts to cover up the Salmonella poisoning.