When dangerous or defective products cause serious injuries, the manufacturer could face civil liability. If you were injured by a defective product, your personal injury suit could provide you with compensation for your physical, financial, and emotional hardships.
An aggressive pursuit of justice could provide you with the compensation you need. The prospect of holding a major corporation accountable might seem unrealistic, but our firm understands how to succeed with product liability cases. Reach out to an Estero personal injury lawyer today.
Compensation for a Defective Product Injury
When you pursue legal action against the manufacturer of a defective product, you could be entitled to an array of financial compensation. These damages could not only cover your out-of-pocket expenses but also compensate you for the other hardships you would not have suffered had it not been for your injury. Some of the damages you might be entitled to recover include:
Lost Wages
Many serious injuries can prevent you from immediately returning to work. For most people, that means missing out on weeks or months of paychecks as they heal from their injuries. Compensation could be available to replace all of the wages lost following a defective product accident.
Medical Bills
Product liability cases could also result in compensation for medical expenses. These medical costs can be significant depending on the extent of your injuries. This is true of the emergency care that can follow an injury, but it can also be the case with long-term medical needs. A successful lawsuit could help you pay for treatment like physical therapy, hospitalization, and ambulance transportation.
Pain and Suffering
The pain you experience might also serve as the basis for compensation. Because it is impossible to objectively valuate pain, your attorney could show a jury how your suffering impacted your quality of life.
Mental Anguish
Reliving the trauma of a defective product accident can be difficult. This trauma could last well beyond your physical injuries, making it difficult to go about normal daily tasks without the fear of another accident. Compensation for this mental anguish could be available to you.
Types of Product Liability Cases
There are three common types of defective product cases, and each of them could result in a valid case for compensation. Understanding how the product that caused your injury was defective is an important first step in the process of securing damages.
Defective Design
The design of a product is sometimes inherently flawed. If the product’s design results in it being unreasonably dangerous, the manufacturer could be liable for any injuries it causes. Design defects typically impact every model of the specific product due to its inherent risk of injury.
Defective Manufacturing
Defects can occur even when the design is not an issue. These defects—known as manufacturing defects—can actually occur at any point from when the design is completed until when the product reaches the consumer. A manufacturing defect could occur in a factory, but it could also result from errors made during transportation or storage.
Marketing Defects
It is also possible to pursue a product liability case when there is nothing unreasonably dangerous about the product itself. Some products—like cleaning agents or chainsaws—come with an inherent risk of injury. This risk will not lead to liability if the manufacturer informs the public of the risk and includes instructions on how to use the product safely. A product without proper warnings or instructions is said to have marketing defects.
What to Look for in a Product Liability Attorney
Not all attorneys in Estero are created equally. Some attorneys focus on defending criminal cases while others focus their practice on bankruptcy. If you intend to pursue a product liability case, it is important to find legal counsel that is well-suited for this type of work. Some of the factors to consider when seeking a product liability attorney include:
Relevant Experience
It is not enough to have an attorney who has been practicing law for a long time. To give yourself the best chance at success with your product liability case, it is vital to have legal counsel with experience handling defective product injuries. This focused experience could give you an edge when pursuing a case against the manufacturer.
Willingness to Litigate
Many product liability cases will conclude through a negotiated settlement. Despite that fact, it is helpful to have legal counsel that will never shy away from litigation. This is true even if your case never makes it inside a courtroom. Having an attorney who prepares for every case as if it were destined for trial could ensure you have a strong case for litigation or settlement negotiations.
Focused on Communication
You will spend a lot of time speaking with your attorney during the course of your case, so it is important that they have strong communication skills. This includes clearly conveying important matters in your case in a way that is easy to understand. Your attorney should be easily reachable and open to answering your questions as they arise.
Experienced Negotiators
Very few product liability cases ever go to trial. Most of these viable claims are ultimately resolved with a settlement. The frequency of settlements in these cases should not leave you with the impression that every offer is worth taking. Manufacturers and their insurance companies often make inadequate offers in the hope of avoiding the real value of a defective product claim. Our firm could help ensure that you do not accept a settlement offer that will not meet your long-term needs.
You Could Be Entitled to Damages for Your Product Liability Case
Putting your case in the hands of experienced legal counsel could be in your best interest. By allowing an attorney to handle every aspect of your claim, you will have the opportunity to focus on your health. At the same time, your attorney could aggressively pursue the compensation you are entitled to recover.
The team at GED Lawyers is ready to advocate for you in your product liability case. To learn how a Estero product liability lawyer could help, reach out right away for your free consultation.
