Were You Hurt by a Dangerous Product?

The product liability attorney you choose will make all the difference.

We have both a reasonable expectation and a legal right to expect that the products we use are safe and will not harm us. While any product comes with risks, manufacturers have an obligation to warn customers about the dangers of their products so they can make smart choices and protect themselves from any hazards. Some products are improperly designed or engineered, however, and some otherwise safe products have manufacturing defects that make them dangerous. Manufacturers may release dangerous items into the marketplace, and these products can cause significant injury and harm to people who trust the company.

When you are injured by a dangerous or defective product, you deserve to be fully compensated. Keogh Crispi, P.C. can help. We have the resources to take on the manufacturers and a track record of big results for injured New Yorkers. Schedule your free consultation with a New York product liability lawyer today.

Manufacturers are legally responsible for dangerous products.

Manufacturers have a responsibility to test their products and to ensure the safety. As such, the manufacturer is responsible for the injury if the product caused harm when used according to its instructions. Additionally, manufacturers are bound by duty to warn customers about any possible risks associated with the use of their products.

There are numerous ways to make a case against a product manufacturer, but they boil down to three types of defects:

Design defect: the product’s core design made it dangerous to users.
Manufacturing defect: the product, while designed in a safe manner, was manufactured using shoddy techniques or lower quality materials, making it dangerous.
Failure to warn/marketing defect: the product had unavoidable dangers that were not adequately communicated to consumers.

For instance, product liability claims are common in cases involving accidents resulting from improperly designed or defective cars, trucks, or auto parts, such as tires. These defects create risks, and can result in tire blowouts, SUV rollovers, or tire tread separations. Sometimes, a defective vehicle causes a crash – for instance, if the brakes fail. In other cases, the defect may not cause the crash, but it does make the injuries more severe. For instance, defective airbags, or roofs not properly designed to protect occupants in the event of a rollover, may make the difference between minor injuries and severe or even fatal injury.

A skilled product liability attorney may be able to win you compensation for some or all the following:

Lost wages and lost future earnings
Pain and suffering or emotional distress
Medical bills and future medical care
Wrongful death if the defective product caused a family member to suffer fatal injuries.

It often happens that dangerous products are mass-produced. This results in injuries to hundreds, if not thousands, of users. As such, some product liability cases are resolved in class actions or in multidistrict litigation.

What is a negligent design claim?

If an injury or death occurs due to a product’s defective design, the claim is that the product functioned as it was intended to, but that the design was negligent. A reasonable manufacturer would have known that the design of the product was flawed, and that injury or death resulting from its use could have been mitigated with better design. Once manufacturers identify a hazard in a particular product, their design engineers must follow established design priority recognized by all design engineers. The following represent guidelines for a negligent design:

The hazardous condition of the product must be designed out if it can be done without compromising the utility of the product.
If the dangerous condition cannot be designed out entirely, it must be mitigated as much as possible.
In addition, if there is a danger that cannot be designed out, warning must be attached that the dangerous condition of this product may cause injury or death.

If any of these conditions are not followed by a manufacturer and the product results in injury or death, a negligent design claim may be made.

How do I know if I have a product liability case?

In the state of New York, an injured party has the right to file a products liability claim. If a person dies due to a defective product, the personal representative of their estate can file a wrongful death claim against the manufacturer.

Filing a products liability claim requires the injured person to prove that the product was dangerous when it left the manufacturer’s control and that it lacked the necessary warning to indicate the risk of an unreasonable danger. In the state of New York, manufacturers are required by law to provide adequate warning about any hazardous parts of their product, and if use of their product may result in injury or death for users. If the manufacturer failed to make sure its product was safe, they’re liable for the injuries it causes.

This is all straightforward in theory, but in practice, proving that a manufacturer failed to ensure its products were safe is anything but simple. Manufacturers and their liability insurance carriers know how high the stakes are, and they know how to manipulate the system to protect their interests.

We hold negligent manufacturers responsible.

As with any personal injury claim, a product liability claim starts with your story. You know what happened to you, and you are in the best position to explain how the injury has affected your life. Our job is to help you tell your story in a way a New York jury will find compelling, and to back you up with hard evidence.

We thoroughly investigate, poring over documents and reviewing physical evidence, to get to the bottom of what happened to you and show that the manufacturer was responsible. We also have the connections and resources to hire expert witnesses who can explain industry-specific safety standards that the manufacturer failed to follow. Our goal is to craft a narrative that a jury will find convincing. When the insurance company for the manufacturer sees that we’re prepared, they come to us prepared to offer a fair settlement. If not, we’ll take them to trial.

Throughout the process, you can count on our legal team to handle the day-to-day negotiations, while keeping you updated on the progress of your case and prepared for the next step. We do all this on a contingency fee basis, which means you don’t pay us unless and until we win for you.

If you’ve been hurt by a defective product, you need to do three things right away: gather evidence (including the product itself), get medical attention, and contact us. We need to start our investigation right away to give you the best chance of success. Give us a call or contact us online to schedule your free consultation with an experienced product liability lawyer.