If you or your loved one suffered injuries due to a defective product, you can seek compensation for your medical expenses and other losses. However, defective product cases differ from other personal injury battles in several ways, including the basis for proving liability for your damages.
Continue reading to learn more about defective product claims and how a Dallas product liability lawyer with our law firm can help you pursue financial justice.
Defective Product Cases Often Involve a Different Standard of Liability
Product liability falls under the umbrella of personal injury law. However, one thing that distinguishes defective product cases from other personal injury cases is the basis for proving liability.
Usually, personal injury victims must show that their injuries resulted from another party’s negligent or wrongful actions. A party is negligent when they act in a way others deem unreasonable. Negligence can also be a failure to act when necessary.
Product liability cases often rest on strict liability instead of negligence. With strict liability, you do not need to establish negligence or wrongdoing. You must only prove the product had a defect that caused physical injuries and financial losses.
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Defective Product Cases Allege Specific Errors Occurred
Many actions can constitute negligence when it comes to other types of personal injury cases, such as car accident claims. For example, a driver may be liable for a crash if they were speeding, drinking and driving, tailgating, or breaking other traffic laws.
With a defective product case, a party is liable if their product caused injury due to one or more of the following three reasons:
- Manufacturing defects. Manufacturing defects happen during construction. The defect may affect all products or only a certain number of products made in a specific facility or at a specific time.
- Design defects. Design defects involve an inherent flaw in a product’s design. Therefore, even when manufactured correctly, the product contains a defect.
- Marketing defects. Marketing defects include a failure to provide adequate instructions for using a product or a failure to warn consumers about a product’s dangers or side effects.
Product Liability May Be More Difficult to Prove Than Personal Injury
Defective product cases can be harder to prove than some personal injury cases. You may have to consult case experts to establish the existence of a product defect. You also might need to obtain evidence that is in the product’s designer, manufacturer, or distributor’s possession.
Building a case can be challenging if you do not have manufacturing or legal experience, and you may be quickly overwhelmed. Our firm’s defective product lawyers can help by doing the following:
- Investigating the cause of your injury
- Collecting case evidence
- Hiring and consulting with experts
- Sending spoliation lawyers to potentially liable parties demanding they preserve and turn over evidence
- Establishing the existence of a manufacturing, design, or marketing defect
- Identifying and calculating your damages
- Preparing and filing insurance and legal documents
- Communicating with involved parties on your behalf
- Aggressively negotiating for the maximum compensation possible
- Representing you at trial if necessary
Defective Product Lawsuits Can Have Multiple Plaintiffs
Many personal injury cases involve a single plaintiff seeking compensation from a single defendant. However, product liability claims often involve multiple parties injured by the same defective product. In addition, the defendant is usually a commercial entity, such as a manufacturer, supplier, wholesaler, or pharmaceutical company, not an individual.
It can benefit defective product injury victims to combine their claims into a mass tort lawsuit, class action lawsuit, or multidistrict litigation. These legal mechanisms can streamline the judicial process and lead to more equitable verdicts for similarly injured parties.
We can tell you more about your options and help you join others to take legal action if necessary. We assist with cases involving:
- Defective medical devices
- Dangerous drugs
- Defective vehicles
- Defective auto parts
- Hazardous chemicals and materials
- Defective or dangerous appliances, furniture, or household goods
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How Are Defective Product Cases and Personal Injury Cases Similar?
While many factors distinguish a defective product case from other personal injury battles, there are ways in which all cases are the same.
Injured Parties Can Seek Compensation
As with any type of personal injury, victims harmed by a defective product can pursue financial compensation from those responsible. In general, awards may include the following:
- Current and future medical bills, including ambulance transportation, medical procedures, hospital stays, doctor’s visits, physical therapy and rehabilitation, prescription drugs, medical devices, and nursing services
- Lost wages, earnings, and employment benefits, including loss of your future earning capacity if you suffered a disabling injury that interferes long-term with your employment capabilities
- Personal property damages, including the cost of repairing or replacing your home, vehicle, or personal items
- Pain and suffering, including monetary compensation for scarring, disfigurement, physical and chronic pain, loss of enjoyment, mental anguish, emotional distress, and reduced quality of life
- Wrongful death of a loved one, including medical expenses, funeral and burial costs, loss of the deceased’s financial support and services, loss of the deceased’s companionship, care, and guidance, and survivors’ mental pain and suffering
Plaintiffs Have a Limited Time to Act in a Product Liability Case
The statute of limitations binds all personal injury cases. In Texas, you generally have two years from your injury to file a lawsuit based on product liability, per Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 16.003. If you do not act before the time limit expires, you will likely be unable to seek damages in civil court.
Call Loncar Lyon Jenkins About Your Defective Product Case
Loncar Lyon Jenkins has served thousands of injured clients from across Texas. We have earned a reputation for professional, results-focused legal representation, and defendants know we mean business. Our legal team will work tirelessly to get the financial awards you need and deserve.
Contact us today for a free product liability case consultation. A team member is available 24/7 to help you get started. We work on a contingency fee basis, meaning you only owe attorney’s fees if and when we win compensation for you.