Products Liability
Our modern commercial world is saturated in products that we all use, rely on, and are exposed to nearly every minute of every day. The cell phone that sounds the alarm to wake us up, the coffee maker we use to brew that first cup in the morning, the vehicle we use to drop our kids off at school, the medications we ingest—the list is nearly endless. Most of the time these products do their job without causing injury. Sometimes, however, these products contain some hidden defect that can have severe and even fatal consequences. Think of a tire tread that separates and causes a vehicle to rollover and crash, a lithium-ion battery that overheats and causes a cell phone to explode, a pharmaceutical drug with undisclosed side effects, etc.
When defective products fail, people are often severely hurt. We know this because we see the consequences of defective products first-hand every day. We focus our care and attention on representing people whose lives have been shattered by defective products—people who have been paralyzed, maimed, or suffered other catastrophic injuries, as well as the families of people who have been killed.
The law provides a way for victims of defective products to both rebuild their lives and hold corporations accountable—making society safer so that others do not have to suffer the same fate. That path forward is known as a “products liability” lawsuit. This niche area of law is highly technical and requires specialized knowledge, care, and attention. Our attorneys have spent decades fighting national as well as international companies that design, manufacture, and distribute defective products. We take pride in holding corporations accountable for putting profits over people.
The term “defect” is technical in nature and has a specialized meaning in the law. At a high-level, products can be defective because of the way they are designed, the way they are manufactured, or because they lack proper warnings and instructions.
Design defects cases focus on the decisions made as the product was being developed. Examples of design defects include using improper materials, failing to install safety devices or guards to protect against foreseeable harm, failing to test the product to ensure it can safely perform its intended function, etc. Because these types of defects are baked into the product’s design, all products produced using those same specifications and plans share the same core flaw and pose the same danger.
Manufacturing defect cases focus on flaws in the production stage. Examples of manufacturing defects include poor quality control, failure to follow proper production protocols, etc. These defects are also often the result of cost-cutting decisions, insufficient testing, or a rushed production process.
Warning or informational defects concern the failure to provide information needed for consumers to safely use and interact with the product. Companies have a responsibility to understand how their products will be used and to provide warnings and instructions for avoiding foreseeable hazards their products will pose during such use. The failure to provide such warnings or information can have disastrous consequences.
A product can be defective because of any single one of these defects or a combination of them. For instance, a product with a marginal design may be made even more dangerous by poor production quality. Likewise, a dangerous product could also lack any warnings, compounding the risk of harm.
Ultimately, proving a product defect is often a difficult and expensive process achieved through both vigorous discovery practice and work with technical experts. On the discovery side, our attorneys regularly seek documents from the defendants to determine how the product was designed and manufactured to identify the flaws that caused our client’s injuries. We regularly review hundreds of thousands—even up to millions—of pages of discovery documents in proving a case. We comb through design documents to look for the cost-cutting decisions that resulted in a faulty product, the poor quality control procedures that resulted in a defective product leaving the factory, and documented reports of other similar products failing and injuring other consumers, as just a few examples.
We also work with experts to develop and provide expert opinion testimony establishing the product’s defective nature. Over our decades of experience litigating products liability cases, we have worked with engineers, physicians, scientists, and other technical experts with wide-ranging backgrounds. This background and knowledge puts us in a great position to get an early understanding of case facts and hire the right experts to immediately begin pursuing and proving your products liability case.
Products liability lawsuits generally focus on companies within the “chain of distribution”—a legal term of art referring to the series of businesses which collectively design, manufacture, and distribute the product. Entities which typically fall within the chain of distribution include the manufacturer, distributors, exporters, importers, dealers, and retailers.
Every jurisdiction has its own specific laws as to which entities within the chain can be held liable—and the standards for holding each such entity liable. Some jurisdictions, for instance, hold all defendants in the chain of distribution “strictly liable,” meaning that they are liable for any defect in the product, regardless of whether they themselves were negligent in any way. Other jurisdictions require a showing of negligence on the part of certain entities within the chain of distribution.
Our attorneys are well-versed in the varying standards of liability in defective products cases, having experience litigating cases on not only a national, but an international basis. You can be sure that we will determine all potentially liable parties when investigating and pursuing a claim on your behalf.
We focus on cases involving severe and fatal injuries—meaning that our clients are often undergoing the most difficult experience they’ve ever endured. Products liability lawsuits provide a critical mechanism to help rebuild when facing such daunting circumstances. Depending on the jurisdiction and facts of your case, a products liability lawsuit may allow for the recovery of financial compensation for:
- Lost wages incurred since the incident;
- Loss of earning capacity moving forward (i.e., to offset for the loss of money the victim would have otherwise been able to earn absent the injury);
- The pain and suffering which has been and will be endured because of the incident; and
- Injury to close personal relationships (e.g., loss of a spouse’s consortium, support, and services).
And our cases also have a societal impact as well. Our decades of experience in litigating on behalf of injured consumers and their families have taught us a sad fact: defective products often reach the market because of corporate greed. Products liability lawsuits expose the harmful effects of such greed and provide a mechanism to send corporations a message that this conduct will not be tolerated. To this end, we’ve fought hard in lawsuits which have prompted actions by government safety regulators, caused companies to change their internal policies and procedures, and spurred nationwide recalls that have made all of us safer.
Simply put: products liability lawsuits provide the path for an individual and their family to rebuild their lives while also protecting others from needlessly suffering the same fate. As such, products liability cases play a critical role both at an individual and a societal level.
Make no mistake: products liability is a highly complex and sophisticated field. Not every attorney can successfully pursue a products liability case. This is not the type of legal matter that should be trusted to a novice or a generalist. Our attorneys have spent decades honing their skills in this arena and have proven their ability to maximize client recoveries while also making an impact on local, national, and international scales. We have the experience and resources needed to pursue justice against the most powerful of corporations—we do so every day. We pride ourselves in our dedication and long track record of success in this highly nuanced and technical area of law.
But don’t take our word for it. Please visit our Results page so that you can see the impact we have in the fight against defective products and corporate greed. Learn more about our results.