If you were injured by a product advertised as safe or have suffered after taking a medication as prescribed, you might be eligible for compensation that can go towards your medical bills, recovery costs, pain and suffering costs, and more. A Cincinnati product liability lawyer from Bey & Associates, LLC may be able to file a defective product lawsuit on your behalf and make sure that item or drug can harm no one else again.
All engineers, product manufacturers, distributors, and retailers are legally responsible for ensuring their items are safe for use as intended, do not contain hazardous materials, are not defective, contain adequate safety warnings regarding usage limitations, and have been properly tested and quality checked. Unfortunately, product and drug makers do not always correctly adhere to this responsibility.
Some examples include:
- Manufacturers who try and use cheaper, potentially hazardous materials to cut costs (this is unfortunately common in products created overseas)
- Major drug companies that do not properly test their drugs as required by law
- Product distributors who fail to properly label an item to keep children from playing with something that might be dangerous.
- Medical device manufacturers that advertise a device to be as safe as another similar product on the market to avoid clinical studies
When the above situations or those similar occur, a victim who is injured can potentially recover damages (compensation) that can go towards their recovery process. Lawsuits help keep consumers safe. Without civil lawsuits, corporations and companies would be able to get away with making defective and dangerous items far more often than they do.
When you stand up for yourself, you’re holding the manufacturer or retailer accountable for their actions. You and your product liability lawyer are showing them that their behavior was unacceptable and they cannot continue to operate in this way. A lawsuit may be the thing that prevents this from happening again in the future. The responsible party will want to take measures so they do not have to go through a lawsuit again and this could mean others don’t have to experience what you went through.
Common Defective or Dangerous Products
Almost every type of product that is sold or distributed has the potential of being defective or dangerous and causing injury. Some types of products are more likely to be defective or dangerous than others, however. Here are some of the most common:
- Cars or car parts – Vehicles that are defective, including recreational vehicles like ATVs, often get recalled due to poor engineering or safety concerns. Oftentimes these recalls come too late. Many car parts and safety accessories like airbags and child car seats also are improperly made, which can lead to injury.
- Household appliances and electronics – When an electronic item isn’t properly tested or is rushed to market, they may short circuit and cause burn injuries.
- Medical devices – Defective medical device lawsuits are some of the most common types of product liability claims we see at Bey & Associates. We’re currently helping clients file claims for injuries, suffering, and long-lasting medical conditions that resulted after having hernia repair surgery using the Ethicon Physiomesh hernia mesh patch. This brand of hernia mesh was found to be defective due to negligence on the corporation’s behalf.
- Pharmaceutical drugs – Pharmaceutical corporations often push their drugs to market before they can be properly tested. This lack of testing, unfortunately, often leads to patients suffering from dangerous complications, side effects, and long-lasting implications. Dangerous drug lawsuits are commonly filed as mass torts in the United States when multiple victims come forward reporting serious complications.
- Industrial/construction equipment and machinery – Defective construction equipment and work-related machinery and tools are one of the most common causes of work injuries. If you were injured in such a situation, compensation may be available if the items were found to be malfunctioning.
Other items that are commonly found to be defective or improperly manufactured include sports and exercise equipment, children’s toys and accessories like cribs, and food. Most smaller items are recalled instantly, but sometimes a company may delay a recall for longer than is safe. Once a product is recalled, the manufacturer is required by law to warn product owners and offer a way to receive a refund or replacement product from a safer line.
Our Cincinnati product liability lawyers are familiar with the kinds of defective products and are prepared to help victims.
How Do You File a Defective Product Claim?
Product liability lawsuits can often be difficult to prove. The product liability lawyers in Cincinnati are well-versed in what it takes to prove your claim. In Ohio, one or more of the following points must be true for a defective product claim to be valid:
- The product caused harm or injury when used as intended
- The product is unfit for intended use due to hazards or manufacturing errors that would make it harmful
- The product includes inadequate instructions that would cause harm if used as instructed
After filing a claim, your product liability lawyer will need to prove that the item was defective and how it directly caused or could have caused injury. It’s important to note that for a product liability claim to be presentable, the item must have been used as intended.
Defective products are usually caused by one of three faulty attributes:
- Faulty design – A defect exists in the product’s inherent design which makes it dangerous. These types of defects typically affect an entire product line.
- Faulty manufacturing – The defect occurred at some point during the manufacturing process, either due to faulty materials or poor workmanship. These defects may affect either a product line or just a single item/few items.
- Failure to warn – The product’s risk factors or safety precautions were not detailed in the item’s instructions or on the packaging. In this case, the manufacturer may not be held liable, but the product’s distributor or advertiser could be.
As your product liability lawyers gathers evidence and builds your case, they will find out where the negligent party made a mistake and how it directly led to your injuries.
Your Product Liability Lawyer Can Help You Recover Damages
You may be wondering if the legal process would even be worth it. It can seem like a lot to take the time to find a legal representative and then go through the process. But it’s vital that you do so you protect your interests.
After an incident where you’re injured, you may be approached by insurance adjusters. They may offer you a settlement right out of the gate—which can be very appealing to many people because they think that they’ll simply sign something, get their settlement, and start their recovery. But this isn’t the best option. It’s highly likely that you will not have all the information you need about your injuries. Therefore, you will not know if the settlement you’re being offered is what you’re owed. More often than not, it will be less compensation than you deserve because insurance companies make a profit when you don’t receive full compensation.
To give yourself the best chance of receiving a fair settlement, you should have a product liability lawyer at your side. We’ll be able to look into the damages you’ve suffered, which include economic and non-economic losses. Economic damages are calculable because it includes items like your medical expenses, future medical expenses, physical therapy, home care, or other damages that the defective product caused.
Non-economic damages are more difficult to quantify, but they’re equally important because they take other things into account that were a direct result of the accident. This includes loss of enjoyment of life, emotional anguish, loss of consortium, or other damages related to that nature.
These may sound like vague concepts, but they’re directly tied to major injury. Those who have sustained serious injuries will most likely have difficulty completing everyday tasks or activities, or their situation could be that they can complete those tasks, but not without experiencing pain. This can cause a lot of frustration and anger because they won’t be able to do these things that many healthy individuals are able to do without thinking about it. These injuries occurred because of someone else’s negligence, yet the victim is truly paying for it. Your Cincinnati product liability lawyer carefully considers this side of your injury when calculating your settlement.
While it will take some time to gather the evidence and find out what happened, calculate your damages, and then hold the right people accountable, you will be able to recover with peace of mind. You shouldn’t have to worry about your settlement not being enough or having to choose between affording your current health care or paying off past bills. You need to be able to relax and heal and use this time to adjust to your life.
Recover with the Help of Our Product Liability Lawyers
If you or a loved one has suffered from an injury or medical complication that you believe was caused by a defective product, an unsafe medical device, or a prescription or over-the-counter drug which was used as intended and believed to be safe, you should get in touch with the Ohio product liability lawyers at Bey & Associates, LLC today.
Our law firm knows what it takes to succeed with complex cases—even those that go up against major corporations like the pharmaceutical industry. We have the experience and skill your case requires. It’s best to start your case as soon as possible so your product liability lawyer has plenty of time to look into what happened and possibly recover physical evidence. Get in touch today to learn more. We offer free consultations to all potential clients.
