Imagine driving down the road. It’s a nice day and you’re zipping along on a bumpy stretch of interstate when suddenly your steering becomes much more difficult, and even slowing down becomes harder. When you hit another car, your last conscious thought is surprise that the airbags didn’t deploy. This type of scenario injured thousands of people and killed over 100, because GM installed faulty ignitions in some of its vehicles. Without attorneys to represent the families impacted by this product defect, it could be argued that GM would have continued to release the same faulty ignitions year after year. If you have an injury from a product you need an attorney!
When we think of personal injury attorneys, we often think of car accidents, but product defects also cause injury and death. Click here and read on to find out more about how a personal injury attorney can help you in the case of product defect.
Manufacturing Defect
A manufacturing defect is a one-off. In this case the product is generally sound but you got one that wasn’t up to standards. This could be a glass which explodes in your hand while you wash it, a stepladder which collapses, a brake failure or the failure of any sort of product you use. Without an attorney it is nearly impossible to determine if what you experienced was a manufacturing defect or defective design.
Defective Design
Defective product design, like the GM case mentioned above, can be difficult to determine. If your tablet suddenly catches fire it may seem like a one-off, and until you do research or contact an attorney, it can be difficult to see a pattern of accidents. Your lawyers will also employ investigators to check why a product failed. To protect yourself and prevent possible future accidents it’s a good idea to check in with an attorney to see if there is a pattern they are aware of. They may even go so far as to look for additional victims to establish a pattern.
Failure to Provide Adequate Warning or Instruction
In this case it isn’t the product itself which is defective but the instructions and warnings which come with it. When airbags were first introduced in the 1990s it wasn’t clear how badly they could injure children even in low speed accidents. Now we have warnings inside cars to remind people not to place children in front seats for just this reason. This type of failure case can be small, like an unexpected burn or cut in the kitchen from an appliance that didn’t indicate this danger. It can also impact thousands of people. An example of this is Monsanto’s Roundup. Internal documents indicated that Monsanto knew Roundup’s potential to cause cancer but assured everyone it was perfectly safe and required no special equipment to use.
All three of these types of failures are product defects about which a personal injury attorney can provide guidance. They can help you recover money for your pain and suffering but can also make sure the same type of accident won’t happen to others. These attorneys are the ones who hold major corporations to task for underhanded behavior that could result in the death of you or someone you love.