Defective Products Personal Injury Cases

A defective product is a product with a manufacturing or design defect, or a product that becomes dangerous because of insufficient instructions or warnings. When a product causes unreasonable risk of physical harm to the user with appropriate usage then the product may be deemed defective.

Product liability is the area of personal injury law that holds manufacturers, distributors, suppliers and retailers of products available to the public responsible for the injuries caused by their products. When a defective product causes serious personal injuries, a product liability lawyer may be able to use product liability law to fight for justice and damages on your behalf. Damages in a products liability case may include medical bills, pain and suffering, lost wages and more.

Know your rights: defective products

One of the basic rights that are supposed to be afforded to consumers is that purchased products are safe for use. When a designer, manufacturer or retailer designs, manufactures or distributes a product with defects or inadequate warnings/instructions to keep the consumer safe then this basic right may have been violated.

If you or a loved one has incurred a serious personal injury because of a faulty or defective product, seek the advice of a defective products attorney. A personal injury firm will have access to a network of medical professionals and other expert witnesses who can provide testimony to show that the product that caused the injury was defective and prove your case.

Strict liability

In most personal injury cases the injured party must prove that the person or entity that caused the injury was “careless” or “negligent.” In product liability cases it is deemed unreasonable or prohibitively expensive to prove that a manufacturer or retailer was “careless” or “negligent” in manufacturing or distributing the product that caused the injury. When a person is injured by a defective consumer product, they may be able to use “strict liability” to sue the manufacturer or the business that rented or sold the product directly to them. Note that strict liability may only be used against a business that regularly sells or rents that particular type of product. For example, a hardware store that sells a defective lawnmower may be held responsible while a person selling a defective lawnmower at a garage sale may not qualify.

Types of defective products cases

There are almost endless products on the market and any of them could have a serious design or manufacturing flaw that renders them dangerous to consumers. Examples include:

• When a car has defective airbags that deploy explosively – such as those in the Takata airbag recall – they can cause facial fractures or other injuries and even wrongful death.
• When a medical device is defective, it can cause serious health problems or death. The FDA creates a searchable database for medical device recalls.
• When a dangerous prescription drug does not come with adequate warnings such as how it interacts with other drugs, it can cause serious harm to the patient.

The Seattle personal injury attorneys at Morrow Kidman Tinker Macey-Cushman, PLLC have years of experience representing families harmed by medical malpractice. We seek justice for patients who have been harmed by preventable medical errors including birth injuries, hospital-acquired infections and wrongful death in Seattle and across Washington State. There are no fees or expenses to file a personal injury case as we only receive payment if we recover damages on your behalf. Do not delay; personal injury claims come with a Statute of Limitations, which means they must be filed within a certain time frame of the injury.

Call us now at (206) 752-4366 or contact us online to schedule a free consultation with one of our compassionate, experienced attorneys.