Defective Product Lawyer

Children and adults across the U.S. use countless products every single day. Motor vehicles, home appliances, electronics, toys, construction materials, safety equipment, and many other products influence our personal and professional lives. We rely on them to work properly and to be reasonably safe to use, but some defective or inherently dangerous products are sold to consumers and cause serious harm.

If you or a loved one have been injured by a defective product, the product liability attorneys at Nix Patterson may be able to assist you in taking legal action against the at-fault manufacturer, distributor, and/or retailer. Our firm has a long history of fighting for individuals that extends back to 1966.

Types of Product Defects

If it is defective, any type of product can cause harm. This may include a booster seat that does not buckle into a car properly, causing it to come loose in a car accident, a medical device that does not perform as intended, an airbag that does not deploy in a collision, or a number of other issues that can cause catastrophic injuries to unsuspecting individuals.

There are three primary types of product defects in the U.S.:

• Manufacturing defects, which occur when a product is designed properly but manufactured improperly. This happens when, for example, something goes wrong in the factory or manufacturing plant where the product was made, but the product goes to market anyway. For example, if an airbag in a car is supposed to be made of nylon, which can withstand the force of the collision and airbag deployment, but the manufacturer uses a weaker material (whether by accident or to save money), that is a manufacturing defect that could cause serious harm.
• Design defects, which affect the design and inherent safety of the product. Design defects occur when product manufacturers do not consider reasonably foreseeable problems and account for them in the way the product is designed. Even if the product is manufactured exactly as it was designed, such a product may still be unsafe. For example, if a skill saw is designed without any protective barriers or safety guards, leaving the high-speed saw disc exposed, the saw was likely designed defectively and will cause foreseeable harm even if the saw is made precisely as designed.
• Marketing defects, which may include failures to warn, improper instructions for use, or improperly marketing a product. These claims arise when there is a danger or hazard inherent in the product that cannot practically be designed out of the product. For example, a chainsaw is an inherently dangerous product and while safety measure can be designed to mitigate the dangers, a chainsaw will always be dangerous to some degree. Thus, it is important that the user know exactly how to operate the product. If a chainsaw does not come with any user instructions or safety warnings, it likely has a marketing defect.

Our product liability attorneys have experience representing individuals who have suffered injuries due to defects in products such as:

• Construction tools
• Pharmaceuticals
• Medical devices
• Motor vehicles
• Children’s products and toys
• Industrial equipment
• Consumer and household products
• Electronic cigarettes and vaping devices
• Recreational products

With our experience in litigating cases of this nature, our product liability attorneys know how to develop compelling evidence that proves accountability and maximizes our clients’ recoveries.

If you think you or your loved one was harmed by a defective product, please reach out to Nix Patterson today.