Defective product personal injury claims involve an area of the law called “products liability”, which is a combination of strands of neligence, strict liability law, and warranty law. Manufacturers and sellers of products have a responsibility to make and sell safe products. And if their products do contain potential dangers, then the law requires the manufacturer to warn potential users of the dangers.

So, you may have a question like:  “I (or a family member or friend) was injured by a product-do I have a case?

A lot goes into answering that question. In fact, there is so much involved in answering that question that if you been injured by a product, you need to consult with a defective product personal injury lawyer who represents people in defective products personal injury claims (and not manufacturers/sellers). The specific facts of your potential case need to be determined and then applied to the law as it exists to make a good faith determination of whether you have a case to pursuit.  But here are some general thoughts to consider in determining whether you may have a products liability case:

First, an attorney who handles products liability cases will need to know did you experience serious personal injury that was caused by the normal anticipated use of a product? Many times, a product may injure a person, but the injuries may not be serious and may not even involve medical treatment. Products liability cases are usually very expensive to bring-that expense is usually paid by the attorney under a fee agreement that normally requires the attorney to be reimbursed for the case costs and expenditures in the event of a financial recovery -either through a settlement or verdict- for the client. If the personal injury is not serious and the damages or losses are not substantial, then it would likely not be wise to bring a claim. In a sense, you would be throwing good money after a bad result with no real recovery for yourself.

Second, it must be determined what type of defect the product contained. In fact, it needs to be determined the exact, specific type of defect that caused personal injury.  So to do that, an investigation has to be performed by the attorney handling the case. The investigation will normally involve the use of other types of people including engineers, product designers, warnings labels designers and experts, medical personnel and others.

Once it is determined that you have indeed suffered a serious personal injury because of a defective product, it will then become necessary to determine the defect involved in your case. Once that is done, a defective products personal injury lawyer can perform legal research to determine how the law will apply in your case. From there, your attorney can give you his or her best judgment as to your chances in court.

For more information about defective products, I would point you to the Consumer Products Safety Commission. Here is a link to its web site. http://www.cpsc.gov/ Here you can search to see if the product that injured you has been recalled.  And if it has not, you can also report your injury to the Consumer Product Safety Commission and they can do an investigation to determine if a recall is in order.

If  you or a family member have been seriously injured by a defective product, do not try and make a determination about whether you have a case on your own. Call a professional who knows the answer to that question and let the professional-a products liability personal injury attorney who represent injured people-NOT manufacturers/ sellers of defective products- make that determination.  Defective product personal injury attorneys usually will offer a free consultation and give you an idea of whether you should proceed with a case.