When you purchase a product, you have every legal right to expect that the product will function the way that you expect it to, and that you will be able to use it properly without fear of injury. Of course, properly using a dangerous product (or using a product incorrectly) has inherent risks as well, but in these instances, the victim is often liable for their own injury. If you are injured because of a manufacturing defect or another instance where the manufacturer is liable for the situation that caused the accident, then you may be able to seek compensation through a defective product lawsuit.
Trying to take on a massive company after being injured by one of their defective products is overwhelming, but the Florida personal injury lawyers at Fasig | Brooks is here to help. Understanding that there is a path forward, and knowing that there is an award-winning team of defective product lawyers ready to guide you down the path, can give a victim of a personal injury great comfort, and the peace of mind necessary to focus on making a full recovery as soon as possible.
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In order to learn about the options available to you for recovering compensation, contact our firm as soon as possible to speak with a Florida defective product attorney. The legal processes for recovering damages after a personal injury are complicated, and the insurance companies and major corporations that you may be fighting against have years, if not decades, of legal support and experience fighting these claims and settling them for as little as possible.
We offer a free initial consultation for victims of defective products, as well as all other personal injuries so that we can use the opportunity to discuss the specifics of the accident with no obligation. Many times, victims choose to initiate an insurance claim on their own without the support of a product liability lawyer because they are worried about the process being costly or time-consuming, but we are confident that at the end of our consultation you will be confident in your decision to choose our law firm, just like the many clients that we have helped in the past.
Read more about defective product injuries, claims, and lawsuits, and contact our firm as soon as possible and contact our liability lawyers today.
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What Warrants Defective Product Cases?
A product liability lawsuit or claim is a civil claim and is the result of a product liability tort. In order for the situation to qualify for a defective product claim or lawsuit, the same details must be present as in any other personal injury case. In the following example, we will use a nailgun injury for the example, but regardless of the product in question, the following will need to be true:
Duty of Care
First, we will need to examine the duty of care that the manufacturer owed you when marketing and selling the product. Manufacturers have strict quality control standards that they must adhere to in order to ensure that the products leaving the production line are safe for use.
A nailgun manufacturer will need to ensure that each product meets the specific safety standards for this product, including things like the gun’s ability to handle pressurized air, continuously and consistently load nails into the chamber, and punch the nails into a board without issue. These quality control checks are part of the manufacturer’s duty of care to ensure that the end-user has a safe working product.
Breached Duty of Care
If during normal usage, the gun broke and you were struck in the eye by a nail that went flying, then we will want to closely examine what broke on the gun, why the nail was ejected, and how it could have been avoided. If we determined that the screws meant to hold the housing together were not installed properly, then we can reasonably assert that the manufacturer failed to perform a proper quality check on this item.
As you can probably imagine, the duties of care change drastically depending on the nature of your relationship with the at-fault party. There are many other steps along a supply chain where another participant assumes a different duty of care to you, which is why it can get complicated quickly when trying to determine where and how the breach occurred, and who had the duty of care for this particular issue.
Accident Caused By Breach
If you were to take a nailgun out of the packaging and notice that the screws holding the upper housing were missing, then you would be well within your rights to make contact with the company and demand that they make it right – either by providing a refund or a replacement nailgun that has all of the pieces in it. If, however, you did not notice that the screws were missing and the result was that the nailgun housing broke apart as you were using it, then this is where the question of personal injuries enter.
If there is no accident, then there is no tort that the defendant is guilty of – they are only guilty of poor craftsmanship or quality control
Measurable Damages Caused By Accident
If your nailgun were to break apart while you were using it, but the nail flew past the side of your hard and landed harmlessly on the floor, then you a) have every right to be furious at the manufacturer and demand a refund or some sort of compensation, and b) are not the victim of a tort. If there are no measurable damages, then we do not have the final necessary detail in order to move forward with a tort claim.
If you were injured, either emotionally or physically, then we may possibly be able to move forward with a case. Again, your unique situation will have a wide range of details that we will need to explore during our initial consultation before ultimately making the decision about whether or not we can move forward with legal action, and if so, what kind of legal action.
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Examples of Defective Product Liability Cases
The following are just a few examples of potential defective product liability cases that we will be able to help you through.
Product Recalls for Fire & Burn Hazards
Recalls are meant to protect manufacturers and product companies from having to pay out massive product liability lawsuit settlements to a range of people. In some instances, such as with this Honda generator, the reason for the recall is because the unit’s inverter can short circuit when exposed to saltwater, and may catch fire. There are countless product liability lawsuits stemming from products catching fire and causing burns to the consumer due to faulty manufacturing or design.
Product Liability & Class Action Lawsuits
In many cases, a defective product is widely distributed, and only when a number of consumers start to get injured as a result of the product defect does the manufacturer realize their error – or may simply ignore the warning flags for as long as possible. Regardless, widespread defective products are the basis for product liability class action lawsuits, as well as personal injury lawsuits filed directly against certain parties along the supply chain. Working with a defective product lawyer is the easiest way to navigate this process and understand your options for compensation.
Talcum Powder & Ovarian Cancer Lawsuits
In late 2018, a report was released claiming that Johnson & Johnson knew that there was asbestos in their talcum powder but they chose to continue to distribute it anyway, increasing the risk of users suffering from ovarian cancer due to exposure. This gross negligence is now the subject of an ongoing product liability class action lawsuit that you can still take part in if you or a loved one was the victim of this terrible behavior.
Children’s Toys Defects
When you buy a child a toy, you should expect that the toy company has taken all of the proper precautions to quality check the product, and throughout the design process that they took extensive measures to ensure that this toy will not pose a risk to a child’s health and safety. Unfortunately, defective children’s’ toys still make their way into the market, and our team of product liability attorneys is ready to help you fight for compensation if your child was hurt due to the irresponsible design and manufacturing of a toy company.
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Calculating Damages After a Defective Product Accident
During a personal injury claim, your attorney will set out to calculate the compensatory damages that you have suffered in order to come up with a fair amount to settle the case. In many instances, our first goal will be to work towards an out-of-court settlement in order to avoid complex and costly lawsuits. However, there are certain times where we may believe that the manufacturer, distributor, or other liable party acted in such a reckless and egregious manner leading up to your accident that you may be awarded punitive damages by a judge or jury. Your legal team will not be able to request—or set an amount for—these damages, so they will never factor into your compensatory damage calculations.
Economic Damages
Economic damages are the basis of your claim and seek repayment for financial losses. These losses include things like your medical bills and all associated costs, as well as your lost wages and other impacts to your work. If your injuries will have a long-term impact on your earning capacity, then we will factor this into your calculations as well. There are many other economic damages that we will be able to include in our case, as well, but each is highly specific and unique to your situation.
Non-Economic Damages
Non-economic damages are more difficult to both calculate and negotiate since they apply to abstract damages such as the actual pain and suffering of your injuries, the emotional impacts that you must deal with such as depression and anxiety, and more. Since it is a lot more difficult to set a dollar value on a loss of enjoyment than it is to determine the cost of a hospital stay, the insurance company is much more likely to push back on these damages. Non-economic damages are no less important than economic damages, and we will fight to get you the money that you deserve – not just the money that the insurance company wants to pay.
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