Call Us Today Dangerous and defective products can cause severe injury, devastating victims and their families; sometimes, injuries are fatal. According to the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC), millions of people visit emergency rooms across the United States each year as a result of product-related injuries.
If you, your child, or another family member has suffered injuries caused by a defective product, our Fort Myers product liability lawyers can help you pursue the maximum compensation possible for your injuries.
We have been committed to helping the injured recover the full and fair compensation they deserve since 1995. Contact the skilled Fort Myers personal injury lawyers at Viles & Beckman for a free case review and to learn how we can help you after an injury from a defective product.
Advocating for the Injured Since 1995
With more than 40 years of combined experience negotiating, settling, and litigating personal injury cases, including product liability cases, Viles & Beckman’s legal team has recovered over $100 million of damages for their clients.
Our Fort Myers product liability attorneys can guarantee we will aggressively advocate for you, help you hold negligent companies accountable, and diligently pursue the best outcome for your individual situation.
Expect More, Receive More: Legal Support That Feels Like Family
Commonly Reported Defective Products
When you buy a new product, you expect it to be safe for use and for the manufacturer to provide instructions and any applicable warnings for use.
Even when companies follow through, a faulty design, damage during shipping, or modifications made by wholesalers or retailers can lead to an unsafe product that causes harm to a consumer.
The CPSC gathers and analyzes data on dangerous products and product-related injuries across the United States. It’s impossible to list the thousands of defective products, but you can get an idea of commonly reported defective products by looking at the CPSC product groupings.
The following product groupings contain a wide variety of items that have been reported defective to the CPSC:
- Child nursery equipment
- Toys
- Sports and recreation equipment
- Home communication and entertainment
- Personal use items
- Household containers
- Yard and garden equipment
- Home workshop equipment
- Home maintenance
- General household appliances
- Heating, cooling, and ventilation equipment
- Home furnishings and fixtures
- Home structures and construction materials
- Miscellaneous items such as fireworks, gasoline, and elevators
Large motorized items might also be defective or have defective components. The CPSC tracks things like scooters and mopeds, but they don’t collect data on automobiles, trucks, and boats.
Although motor vehicle defects vary widely, defective airbags and defective tires remain commonplace. When negligent manufacturers result in harm to you or your family, our product liability lawyers in Fort Myers can help you seek financial compensation.
(239) 334-3933
What Makes a Product Defective?
On a rudimentary level, you understand a faulty product does not work; but, when product liability attorneys and courts talk about defective consumer products they refer to specific legal definitions.
Like most other states, Florida recognizes three main types of product defects that can lead to a lawsuit:
Design Defects
These occur in the early stages of product development. When designers conceptually work on a new product, it seems safe and a great idea to fill a need in the marketplace, but in fact, the design is unreasonably dangerous.
In product liability lawsuits, a product must pass the consumer-expectation test, or it is defective. Courts assess whether a product “performs as safely as an ordinary consumer would expect when used as intended or when used in a manner reasonably foreseeable by the manufacturer.” In some situations, Florida courts also use a risk/benefit test to determine a design defect.
This test asks whether the risk of danger from a product design is greater than the benefits of using the product.
Manufacturing Defects
These occur after the design phase of a product, when companies assemble or construct the product. In these cases, the design was safe, but the manufacturing process created a defect in the item.
Manufacturing defects can occur as a result of using cheap materials, the wrong materials, improper construction, poor assembly, and mistakes, such as missing pieces, bad welds, and damaged materials.
When products with manufacturer defects end up in the hands of a consumer, it’s often a result of poor quality control at the manufacturing facility. Our Fort Myers product liability lawyers can help you determine if these defects resulted in a product malfunction and whether they were the cause of your accident.
Marketing Defects
A safe product must include sufficient warning labels and instructions. Information or marketing defects can include a broad range of defects related to marketing and instructions associated with a product.
Manufacturers have a legal responsibility to warn consumers about hazardous aspects of their products, and when applicable, they must provide instructions for use. When companies fail to provide instructions, improperly label their products, or do not provide adequate warnings to consumers, their products have an information defect.
Specifically, Florida courts find products “unreasonably dangerous, if injury from a product could have been prevented by providing a warning or instructions.”
Click To ContactContact a Fort Myers Product Liability Law Firm Today
We understand the frustration of dealing with an injury and the financial fallout that comes with expensive medical bills. Losing your ability to work after an injury and being pressured or ignored by the insurance company is something no one should go through.
You may have the right to pursue financial compensation with a defective product injury lawsuit. No matter how you were injured, a Florida personal injury lawyer from Viles & Beckman may be able to help. Contact us today for a free consultation and learn more about how we can protect your rights and your claim.
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