Do you need a personal injury attorney for a product recall?

There are many stories in the news about products being recalled. It can be anything from lead paint in a child's toy to beef or even fresh fruit. Knowing that your child may be playing with a toy known to kill children isn't always a comforting thought. Most companies will recall the product and either replace it with a better product or return your money. What happens if you are affected further from the product recall? There are many product liability claims that can be filed. You can file a claim for product liability based on negligence, strict liability, or breach of warranty of fitness.

You may not be too familiar with strict product liability laws so we will discuss this further. Strict product liability is an area of law which pertains to liability of a manufacturer of a product sells this product and is held responsible for the injuries or damages it causes to its consumer. This can include the manufacture of component parts, an assembling manufacturer, the wholesaler, and the retail store. As you can see, there are various levels of responsibility pertaining to product liability. If you are upset with just the store, you may only be skimming the surface of a much larger problem. Product liability has branched out to more than just personal property; it now includes intangibles such as gas, pets, real estate, and navigational charts.

There are three main types of product defects that incur liability in manufactures and suppliers; design defects, manufacturing defects, and defects in marketing. Without proper knowledge of product liability lawsuits, you may be missing out on critical information. If you used a product incorrectly, you may have a case as long as the incorrect use of the product was foreseeable by the manufacturer. Looking into the three main types of product defects will help you know if you should consider a personal injury attorney to help you with your case.

Design defects are inherent. Basically this means that design defects existed before the product was manufactured. Cars are a great example of design defects. Have you noticed when a company makes a new car, they re-do the car and have a newer model released a few years later? This is to correct design defects they may have noticed in the car. One noticeable design defect can be found on the early editions of the Ford Explorer. If you look at the doors on a 1991 Ford Explorer compared to a 1994 Ford Explorer, you will notice one key factor, plastic. Ford Motor Company realized that water would rust the bottom of the doors, thereby making the bottom paneling of the door deteriorate. To fix this, Ford Motor Company lined the bottom of their next edition of the Ford Explorer with a plastic base to go over the metal to prevent rusting. While this didn't cause personal harm to anyone, it was an important lesson for Ford Motor Company. A design defect flaw may serve its purpose, however, is can be unreasonably dangerous to use a product with a design flaw.

Manufacturing defects typically occur during the construction or production of a product or item. A benefit for companies is that manufacturing defects typically do not affect all the products on the assembly line, just a few are flawed. This makes it harder to pressure a lawsuit, especially if only 1 out of 1 million products were defective and you happened to be that 1 person who purchased it.

Defects in marketing occur if the company fails to warn consumers of latent dangers in the product. Each time there is a breakout of E-coli in meat, it is spread on the news to prevent possible risk to consumers. This should be the same for every product that is ever recalled. If a company fails to do so, you have some evidence to support your claim that you were unaware of the potential risks or dangers.

Again, many product liability claims are based on negligence, strict liability, or breach of warranty of fitness. Depending upon your state, you may have a state that has enacted comprehensive products liability statutes. These statutory provisions can be very diverse. The United States Department of Commerce has promulgated a Model Uniform Products Liability Act (MUPLA) for voluntary use by the states. Currently, there is not a federal products liability law. A products liability claim is generally considered to be a strict liability offense. Strict liability focuses on the product itself instead of negligence of the manufacturer. Under strict liability, the manufacturer will be held responsible for a defective product, even if the manufacturer was not negligent in making the product defective.

Many product liability lawyers agree that strict liability is sensible because two parties who are not negligent (the manufacturer and the consumer); one will have to suffer the economic cost of the injury. This makes the manufacturer the insurer of consumers who are injured by its defective products. Your personal injury lawyer may argue that the manufacturer is in a better position than the consumer to know of the particular dangers related to their product. Because of these arguments, many manufactures have put warning labels on the products to prevent themselves from a potential lawsuit. This is why your blow dryer states not to use it if you are near water.

As you can see, having an experienced attorney on your side can help guides you through this complicated process. It is difficult to try a case on your own without the proper experience and knowledge to support your claim.

Similar to if you were in a car accident; a personal injury lawyer will gather evidence against the manufacturer. This evidence gathering can take a long time and you may not be able to know what evidence you are looking for. Hiring a personal injury attorney will pay off since they have a team of experts who gather information and can testify in court.

Many people are not aware pf who will be held liable for damages and injures caused by a defective product. You may have purchased a product that was manufactured outside the United States. This can be confusing for a person if they don't know where to start to make a claim to gain the compensation they deserve. A personal injury attorney is skilled in this particular field and will know that once a product is manufactured outside the United States and is sold in the United States; anyone involved with the manufacture or sale of the product will become liable to the laws of the United States. It takes time and research, but it is possible to sue a foreign company for damages caused by the defective product.

As with any case, each state has a specified period of time in which you have to file your suit. This time frame is called a statute of limitations. Once you have an injury or illness directly related to a product, this is the date the statute of limitations begins. Many states do have a clause, called delayed discovery, when the statute of limitations does not begin until you have discovered the injury. If you do not know this, you may not be aware how critical this can be to your case. For example, if you had cosmetic surgery such as breast implants, you may not have problems at first, but can develop problems at a later time. Some common injuries related to breast implants are: leaky implants, cancer, unexplained tumor growth, and even death.

There are so many different circumstances that pertain to personal injury lawsuits based on defective products. A personal injury lawyer can help protect your legal rights and fight for the compensation you deserve. Buyers, users, and even bystanders can all potentially sue for damages or injuries caused by defective products.

Studies have shown that product liability related deaths and injures occur ever day and total roughly 34 million per year. As you are now aware a product liability case covers many different things. Product liability covers everything from defective designs to improperly manufacturing products to poor PR efforts. You should be aware that your child's favorite toy could be a chocking hazard.

Be aware that a products liability case is extremely complex, expensive to prosecute and is defended vigorously by manufactures. This is why it is important to hire a personal injury attorney. Going up against a manufacturer with little knowledge on product liability law can be tricky and hard if you are not properly trained. Discuss your case with your attorney before you begin seeking legal action, you want to know that you actually have a good case that can win. Many lawyers are picky about these types of cases since they are hard to win and quite expensive and time consuming, so don't get discouraged if you find yourself visiting 3 or 4 different attorneys. Chances are if a lawyer won't take it and you go to 8 others and no one will help with your case, then you don't have a case at all. Take the time to prepare before you meet with an attorney and gather all the evidence you can so your lawyer can work hard to help you win.