Make Sure You Hire the Best
As a consumer, you are entitled to purchase a safe product that does not place you at an unreasonable risk of harm. This may require a truthful warning label or design improvement. If you get injured from a defective product, you may be entitled to get financial compensation from manufacturers and many parties in the distribution chain. An experienced team of Los Angeles product liability lawyers is here to protect you. Our best trial lawyer can hold the people responsible for your injuries accountable in both state and federal courts over a faulty product.
These defective product claim cases have dramatically increased in the past few years. So you must always count on experienced product liability lawyers who can get fair compensation for your injuries, lost income, pain, and suffering.
Here at Ehline Law Firm, we have the best team of product liability lawyers. Our trial lawyers also have the defective design experts to prove catastrophic injury causation. All you have to do to get a free consultation with our passionate personal injury attorneys by calling (833) LETS-SUE.
Defective Products and Manufacturer Recalls
Manufacturer recalls are widespread, as several things are involved in the manufacturing process of most products, which could go wrong at any moment. However, the manufacturer must act immediately to fix the problem once they learn about the incidents their defective and dangerous products have been causing.
Otherwise, the federal government can demand a recall, which may cause more severe consequences for the manufacturer.
You must always remember that products can still be dangerous if they haven’t been recalled, as you could be one of the first people suffering injuries from them.
Therefore, you must report your accident and ask the manufacturer for a recall. They can also make modifications to the product to make them safer for their users.
What to Do After an Injury?
If you want to make sure your case proceeds as effortlessly as possible, you must know the critical steps you must take after being injured by a dangerous or defective product.
Just look at the following list, and you should be ready to call experienced product liability attorneys:
- Gather as much evidence as possible, which is key to proving liability. Please don’t throw the product away; just keep it somewhere safe and keep your medical receipts and pictures of your injuries.
- Get medical help as soon as possible to determine your injuries’ severity. Remember to save all your bills so that you can get compensated for those expenses.
- Finally, hire a product liability lawyer who can report the defective product to the CPSC and file a claim against the manufacturer.
Types of Product Liability Claims
Dangerous product defects can be classified into three categories that determine the severity of the harm they cause.
- Design Defects. Any type of product can be poorly designed. In these cases, the flaw in the product starts at the beginning of the designing process, and it must be completely changed for it to work properly. Some good examples of this are lithium-ion batteries for e-cigarettes.
- Manufacturing Defects. These are the most common types of defects, as they occur during manufacturing. In these cases, the product doesn’t need to be replaced, but the manufacturers must implement stronger safety protocols to ensure all their consumers are safe.
- Failure to Warn. When a product isn’t properly labeled, or the manufacturer fails to indicate how to use it, they could be held responsible for any injuries caused by the product, especially if any potential hazards can appear when using the product.
According to product liability law, the company will be held liable for all injuries caused by its products, as it should know all the potential dangers that its products have.
However, the distribution chain can also be held liable, especially when the product is made overseas. These are why you hear about multi-million dollar settlements on the news. To protect consumers, a defective product lawyer will gather insurance money from anyone in the chain of commerce.
Types of Product Defects
You must be aware of which types of products tend to have more defects.
Therefore, the following list has some of the most common product defects you’ll find:
- Vehicle Injuries. This includes all autos, trucks, and motorcycles that were badly designed or manufactured and caused terrible injuries to their users. Some of the most common injuries are spinal cord injuries, brain trauma, and severe burns caused by a failure of the brakes or airbags of the vehicle.
- Consumer Products Injuries. This includes virtually all products that can be found in a store, including home appliances like a toaster oven. The Consumer Product Safety Commission tracks all the complaints and ensures the products get fixed or removed from the stores.
- Scaffolding Injuries. These injuries are one of the deadliest ones on this list, as they cause thousands of construction falls and electrical contact injuries. This causes terrible consequences to a family member or friend who suffers from them, such as spinal cord trauma, brain traumatism, and death. These defective product cases often involve cross-claims of negligent supervision and require lawyers who can personally impact the insurance companies and large corporations.
- Manufacturing Equipment Injuries. These injuries are also extremely tragic, as they can result in life-long disabilities. Many companies have implemented thousands of safety campaigns. Still, people keep getting injured due to defects in meat cutters, power presses, saws, and other manufacturing equipment, which can easily amputate their limbs.
- Drug and Medical Devices Injuries. The final type of injury on this list includes medical devices and prescription drugs that cause terrible side effects on their users. However, the liability in those cases depends on whether the patient was adequately warned or not.
- Children’s Toys. Imagine a consumer injury caused by toxic lead paint or some other issue like a choking hazard related to marketing defects. Hundreds of millions of dollars can be on the line. Don’t expect these people to roll over and pay, so hiring the right law firm is extremely important.
Our Super Lawyers have recovered hundreds of millions of dollars on behalf of clients against the largest corporations and multi-million dollar distributors throughout Southern California.
How Do I Know If I Have Purchased or Used a Defective Product?
You must know the difference between a defective product and a simple product that broke, but this can be difficult to understand for people new to a product liability case.
Furthermore, you can only file a product liability claim if you used it as you were supposed to and got injured. On occasions, it can be helpful to check the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s list of recalled products, as this can help you stay safe and avoid products that could potentially represent a hazard to your safety leading to the legal process against retailers and everyone else in the Los Angeles, CA chain of distribution.
It also has a lot of educational material to understand how defective product injuries work and how to file a claim against the manufacturer. The physical pain caused by an unreasonably dangerous product may require surgery, physical therapy, and long-term medical care. Going after product manufacturers in this condition or having to pursue legal action without a lawyer is not a smart move. Third-degree burns or even death can become complex cases when a product fails.
California’s Product Liability Laws
If you or your loved ones live in Los Angeles, you should be aware of California’s product liability laws, as they protect you against faulty products and warning labels.
Still, if you’re not well-versed in product liability cases, you can always hire a product liability lawyer to guide you through them. Some things to consider are the following:
- The statute of limitations to file a claim against the liable party is two years.
- You must prove that the defect falls within one of the three previously described categories.
- There must be a direct correlation between the injury and the company.
Comparative Negligence in Product Liability Claims in California
Another crucial aspect to remember when dealing with product liability suits in Los Angeles is its comparative negligence system.
It means that you can be partially at fault for your injuries, and you will only partially recover the damages you suffered. You will only get the percentage of the other party’s fault.
Therefore, if you suffered serious injuries from a product defect, you should work with a fantastic Los Angeles product liability attorney with whom you can create a great attorney-client relationship and get the highest possible compensation.
Should I Join a Class Action or File an Individual Lawsuit?
This decision will depend on the nature of your case. If you are aware of other similar cases, it may be an excellent choice to explore the possibility of joining a class action. But if you have unique injuries, the best way is to file an individual personal injury case.
Hiring a reliable Los Angeles County personal injury lawyer can help you decide which is the best option for you. Still, both options are meant to ensure manufacturers are held accountable for their mistakes and you get the compensatory damages you deserve.
Filing a Product Liability Claim
In most product liability lawsuits, the manufacturer will have strict liability when they harm consumers, which means that the injured party won’t have to prove negligence to recover compensatory damages from your personal injury claim. Still, you must prove you were injured by the product’s design defect and suffered measurable damages.
To recover compensation from the other party, you must call a reliable personal injury lawyer who can prove the defective product put you in significant danger, or they could cause property damage, etc.
What Damages Can I Recover for My Los Angeles Defective Product Injuries?
A manufacturing defect can have terrible consequences for product users and bystanders, as the victim’s family members will have to take care of their medical expenses and catastrophic injuries, especially if it turns into a wrongful death case. Because of this, the at-fault businesses may be held strictly liable. But you still must prove your serious injury was caused by accident to recover damages.
That’s why it is crucial to hire a Los Angeles product liability lawyer who can get the following damages awarded to their clients:
- Economic Damages. In a product liability lawsuit, you are entitled to be financially compensated for all your out-of-pocket expenses due to the strict liability nature of the case. This includes all the money you spend to take care of your catastrophic injuries, including medical treatment, orthopedic devices, lost wages, and transportation costs.
- Non-economic Damages. These damages may be difficult to measure, but most product liability victims are entitled to them, especially in wrongful death cases. They are based on the emotional impact of the losses and include elements such as pain and suffering, disabilities, emotional distress, loss of companionship, etc.
- Punitive Damages. Punitive damages are the last type of compensation you can get from these cases. It is used as a punishment for especially severe cases in which the manufacturer created the defective product in bad faith toward the user. YOu can ask these questions during your free consultation.
If you suffered defective product injuries related to consumer purchases, including defective airbags, electrical devices, or warning defects, we highly encourage you to take legal action against the product manufacturer. For example, you’ll need money for household services while burn injuries heal. Nonetheless, we know it can sometimes be scary to do it alone, which is why here at Ehline Law, we have a team of specialized lawyers who know everything about defective products and how to file these claims for a victim’s injuries.
All you have to do is call Ehline Law Firm at (833) LETS-SUE. Get a free initial consultation with us 24/7. We have the vast resources to prove all the essential elements of your product liability cases.
