Products Liability

Despite the fact that manufacturers and distributors have a duty to make their products reasonably safe for use, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission , millions of people each year suffer injuries and wrongful deaths from defective products. Almost any consumer good available to the public can be defective — everything from automobile and airplane parts, to pharmaceuticals, medical devices, household appliances, or toys.

Products can be defective in one of three ways:

• Design defect: A product with a design defect is fundamentally flawed and defective before it is ever manufactured. If a product has a design defect, every item manufactured according to that design will be defective and dangerous in the same way.
• Manufacturing defect: When something happened during the manufacturing process that caused one particular product to be dangerously defective, it has a manufacturing defect. Faulty equipment on the manufacturing line, inadequate quality assurance, and the use of substandard materials can all cause manufacturing defects.
• Defective warnings: Even if a product is safe in its design and manufacture, it can be defective if it does not carry clear and complete warnings of reasonably foreseeable dangers. If the warnings and instructions on the packaging are vague, incomplete, or fail to disclose a known risk associated with a product, the manufacturer can be held liable for the resulting damages. In some cases, the manufacturer can also be held liable for failing to remedy defective warnings that have been discovered after the product becomes available to the public.

Defective Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices

Sometimes drug companies release pharmaceuticals for patient use that have not been adequately tested or may cause unforeseen side effects, such as heart attacks, blindness, strokes, or even death. Likewise, medical devices, such as defibrillators and pacemakers, can malfunction and cause serious dangers. Additionally, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) may approve a device or drug for one or more specific uses, but not for other uses. If a drug or medical device company does not take adequate measures to prevent injuries caused by any of the above, the organization may be liable for any damages caused by the product.

Seek Experienced Legal Representation

At the Corrie Yackulic Law Firm, LLC, we have over 20 years of experience representing injured plaintiffs in even the most complex products liability cases. For information on our past experience, please visit the successes page. For a free consultation regarding your case, contact us today.