Every year, defective products cause thousands of injuries throughout the United States, as well as a surprising amount of deaths. Affecting everything from consumer goods to medical equipment to vehicle parts, a defect can unexpectedly disrupt your life and leave your family reeling from the personal and financial repercussions.
If you have been hurt by a dangerous product, you have legal recourse available. A Dalton defective product lawyer can help you build a claim seeking all damages you have suffered, including the costs of your needed medical care, any income you have lost because of your injuries, and the intangible costs of your personal pain and suffering.
Don’t trust product manufacturers to do the right thing when their dangerous goods have caused an injury to you or someone close to you. Reach out to The CEO Lawyer Personal Injury Law Firm to explore your options for filing a claim.
Call (706) 307-4676 or contact us online to schedule your free, no-obligation case review with an experienced defective product attorney in Dalton today.
How Does a Dalton Defective Product Attorney Help Me Pursue My Claim?
In many cases, companies will appear to make it easy to seek reimbursement when their defective products cause you injury or lead to a harmful medical condition. They may provide numbers on their packaging on their website, which will refer you to a claims center.
They may even promise to send you a check to cover some or most of the damages you have suffered because of their product.
The truth is that companies make great efforts to control the claims process in this way. They direct consumers to hotlines and websites that they control, helping avoid a formal injury claim.
They may also use intimidating-sounding legal language, such as by implying that you have no right to sue them and must instead submit to mandatory arbitration.
Because it is so easy to get wrapped up in the things the liable company wants you to focus on, hiring an attorney to represent your defective product case is like turning the light on to see your legal situation clearly for the first time. All manufacturers are legally responsible for the harmful effects their products cause.
Georgia’s strict liability laws (OCGA § 51-1-11) even hold them accountable when there was no demonstrable act of negligence, provided that the product “when sold by the manufacturer was not merchantable and reasonably suited to the use intended, and its condition when sold is the proximate cause of the injury sustained.”
In other words, you cannot legally sell products if using them as intended poses an unreasonable risk of harm and the manufacturer did not take the necessary effort to warn the consumer about the risks.
To help you pursue your claim, your Dalton defective products attorney can:
- Investigate how the product caused harm, including analyzing the product you owned and researching whether similar injuries have occurred in the use of the product
- Identify parties responsible for the condition, which typically includes the manufacturer of the product but may instead refer to a distributor, marketer, or owner-in-fact of the product line in question
- Verify your medical condition and document the defective product as its primary cause
- Confirm the type of defect according to expert analysis and application of relevant state or federal laws
- Accurately estimate your damages in full, including the costs of previous medical treatment required to treat your injury and projected future costs of care
- Assist with the submission of a claim, including documenting your damages and negotiating for the highest settlement value applicable
- Prepare a possible lawsuit against the manufacturer or other named parties if no settlement can be reached, up to and including a potential jury trial
How Do I Know if I Have a Defective Products Claim?
In order to qualify for a defective product claim, the following must be true:
- You or a member of your household purchased the product in question new from a retailer, distributor, or other legitimate point of sale
- The product was not modified or mishandled in any significant way
- The product was used as instructed by the manufacturer for its intended purpose
- Use of the product directly led to a physical injury or another harmful medical condition
- The injury inflicted has produced damages, which include financial losses stemming from needed medical treatment as well as non-tangible pain and suffering experienced by the victim
Because the damages in a defective product claim can be quite high, manufacturers will often try to avoid liability by alleging that one of the above statements is not true in their particular case. For example, they may dispute the method in which the product was purchased, or they may allege that the product was not used as intended.
The high potential for misleading information makes having an attorney particularly valuable in these types of complicated legal cases. Your attorney will help you validate the elements of your claim and consider statements made by the manufacturer from an objective legal standpoint.
At The CEO Lawyer Personal Injury Law Firm, our goal is to help you exhaust all legal options available for pursuing damages. Even if you feel like your situation might not qualify for a defective products claim, it is always worth consulting with a Dalton personal injury attorney in order to evaluate your case and determine what legal options are available.
Common Types of Product Defects
A product defect can generally fall into one — or several — of the following three categories:
- Defective designs are likely to cause harm when the product is used as intended or when used as can be reasonably predicted by the manufacturer, i.e., the product is inherently dangerous
- Defective manufacturing introduces defects through the use of substandard materials or manufacturing procedures, such as by using cheaply made screws that break and cause an infant’s bed to fall apart unexpectedly
- Failure to warn of defects involves a product that is likely to be used in an unsafe way because the manufacturer failed to indicate proper use, or it can involve a product that has likely and known risks that were not disclosed sufficiently to the user
Defective products claims can also involve a breach of warranty, including warranties that are express or implied. In such claims, the victim may be limited in the damages they can pursue, however, because the warranty may not cover the medical costs of injuries and other related damages, limiting compensation to reimbursement of the initial purchase value of the product.
Does a Product Have to Be Recalled to Be Considered Dangerous?
Any defective product can cause a manufacturer to be held liable for damages, regardless of whether the defect was previously documented or if a recall exists for the product in question.
Unfortunately, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) of the United States has very limited authority when it comes to restricting sales of products or forcing them to be recalled. Nearly all recalls are voluntary actions issued by product companies.
Products can only be banned from sale when specific laws are enacted that describe the product or its general qualities and usage. Issuance of a recall can serve as potent evidence of a serious defect, therefore, but it is not the only way to determine if a product did, in fact, cause harm and is likely to cause harm again.
You and your attorney can investigate the history of the product in question in order to determine if other injuries similar to yours have occurred in the past. Input from product engineers and safety experts can also supply vital evidence demonstrating the inherent risks of a product, even when used as intended by manufacturers.
Negligence Law and Product Defects
In cases where Georgia’s strict liability law may not apply, you and your attorney can instead seek to document that the manufacturer responsible for the product was somehow negligent.
Examples of negligence that can lead to a dangerous product defect include:
- A lack of sufficient consumer safety testing
- A failure to provide industry standards during the design or manufacture of a product
- Evidence that the company was aware of risks but failed to disclose these risks to consumers
- Evidence of failure to provide adequate instructions for product handling, either during transport or while within the possession of consumers
- A failure to respond to possible reports of health and safety risks stemming from the product’s use
- A failure to take corrective action when products are continually used contrary to their intention, such as when chemical products are abused as a recreational drug when such misuse is reasonably likely to occur and, thereby, foreseeable by the company
Get to the Bottom of Your Claim by Working With a Dalton Defective Product Law Firm
As you can see, there are many technical legal questions involved when a defective product causes harm. Relying on the manufacturer’s own processes and representatives to make you whole again, legally and financially speaking, puts you at their mercy.
Instead, strongly consider reaching out to an experienced Dalton defective product attorney team. The CEO Lawyer Personal Injury Law Firm will help you investigate your accident and seek to hold manufacturers accountable for the full extent of harm they inflict — potentially sparing others from the same fate in the future.
Learn more about your possible claim, including how much it could be worth when you call (706) 307-4676 or contact us online to schedule a free case review.
