Detroit Product Liability Lawyer
Product Liability
Injured? Get Help Now. Dial Davis. (888) Dial DavisYou use products every single day. From the clothes you wear, the food you eat, the toothbrush and toothpaste you use, the car you drive, and everything else around you, without even thinking about it, you expect all of these items to be safe to use as intended.
You do not think twice about making eggs and bacon for breakfast, because they should not contain dangerous bacteria or viruses. You do not hesitate to get in your car and drive to work or school because you assume that if your vehicle is working as it should, it is relatively safe to keep going. Unfortunately, your trust in products may be misplaced one day. Many products that are defective and dangerous in some way make it to the market and into your home. Depending on the defect, how you use the product, and innumerable other factors, one day that product may cause you harm. On that day, you may have a product liability claim against the manufacturer or seller of that defective product.
To discuss Michigan’s product liability law and when you can hold a manufacturer or retailer responsible for a defective product, call our experienced Detroit personal injury lawyers from Davis Injury Lawyers, PLLC at (313) 462-7979. You can also reach out to us via our online form to schedule your initial consultation.
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What Is Product Liability?
Businesses do not have free reign to design, manufacture, and sell dangerous products. They have a legal duty to consumers to sell products that are reasonably safe to use as intended.
If a product has an inherent danger to it, then that product should come with safety labels and warnings. Making a product safe and including essential warnings is not a favor that businesses do for consumers. It is a legal requirement. If a business fails to make a product as safe as possible to include important warnings or instructions, then that product may be defective. If it causes someone harm, then under product liability law, that person may have the right to pursue compensation from the companies responsible for the defective product.
If you or a loved one are injured because of a defective or dangerous product, do not hesitate to obtain legal representation. Our product liability lawyers are here to represent your pursuit of compensation for your physical, psychological, and economic injuries.
We Handle a Wide Range of Product Liability Claims
Our defective product attorneys at Davis Injury Lawyers, PLLC can help with various types of product liability claims, including auto defects and defective medical devices.
These are two of the most common types of defective product claims. Far too many vehicles on the road have one or more defects. Some of these defects are so minor that people do not bother getting them fixed. However, other defects can be deadly. Defects in tires, brakes, airbags, or any other central components of a vehicle can lead to dangerous crashes, serious injuries, and fatalities.
Our liability lawyers also handle claims involving defective and dangerous medical devices. Manufacturers often rush to have new devices approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). However, after months or years of use, it may become apparent that the medical device has serious and life-threatening side effects.
A number of medical devices that have been found defective in recent years include certain hip and knee replacements, IVC filters, hernia and vaginal meshes, and the power morcellator.
Other common claims involve clothing, children’s toys, nursing and infant products, household appliances, household chemicals, tools, and over-the-counter and prescription drugs. Food is another type of product that can be defective by being contaminated with foodborne illnesses. If you suffer severe food poisoning and have to be hospitalized, do not hesitate to call a defective product lawyer discuss your rights.
Types of Defects
Product defects typically fall into one of these categories:
Design Defects
When a product is defectively designed, it means the intended design of the product is not as safe as it could be. It is inherently dangerous to use. This type of defect effects every product manufactured. One of the most famous design defects was the Ford Pinto’s unreinforced fuel tank. Ford chose not to add greater protections to the fuel tank, which was easily ruptured in an accident and created a high risk of catching fire. A more recent example is the poorly designed Takata airbags, which have exploded and caused driver’s and passenger’s severe injuries and some deaths.
Manufacturing Defects
A manufacturing defect means something goes wrong during the creation or assembly of the product. The final product’s specifications do not meet the intended design, and it is this difference that makes the product dangerous. Manufacturing defects do not impact every single product. However, they can affect millions of products that make it to store shelves or online. Unfortunately, manufacturing defects occur every day. A common example includes medications and medical products that are not sterile when they should be.
Warning Defects
These are also called marketing defects or a failure to warn. When a product is inherently dangerous despite being designed to be as safe as possible, then it must come with the appropriate instructions and warnings. Consumers should know right away that this product could hurt them if it is not used properly and carefully. An inherently dangerous product that does not have certain instructions and warnings is considered defective. A famous case of when a company was held liable for a failure to warn about the dangers of its products is when Philip Morris was sued for tobacco cigarettes causing cancer.
After you are injured due to a dangerous product, you may not know why it was defective. This is why it is important to contact a product liability law firm. By hiring an experienced team to take on your case, you have advocates who are ready to investigate the incident and determine what went wrong and why. Your lawyers will gather evidence regarding the issues with the product and how it was defective.
Legal Bases for a Defective Product Lawsuit
Depending on your situation, there may be one or more reasons why you can hold a business responsible for your injuries caused by a defective product. These reasons include:
Negligence
If you claim that a business was negligent, which resulted in a defective product, then you must establish that the business did not act as it should have. You must show that the business failed to uphold its duty of care to consumers. Depending on your circumstances, our defective product lawyers may strive to prove the company negligently designed or negligently manufactured the product. Or, we may seek to prove the company negligently failed to warn consumers about a risk associated with the defective product.
Strict Liability
This cause of action means you can hold a business responsible for the effect of a defective product whether or not they were negligent. Despite the company acted as it should have, it is still responsible for the harm its product causes.
Breach of Warranty
When businesses market and sell products, they make numerous explicit and implicit promises about that product. If you were harmed because the product failed to live up to one of those promises, then you can sue the company based on violating its expressed or implied warranty.
Misrepresentation or Fraud
When a business advertises its products, it has to be truthful. It cannot claim that the product is something it is not or does something that it cannot possibly do. Making misrepresentations like this induces many consumers to buy the product without realizing it cannot perform as advertised. Instead, the product may be harmful to the you, and if you are injured, you can sue based on fraud.
What You Need to Prove Under the Michigan Product Liability Act
If you were injured by a product in Michigan, then your claim against the product’s manufacturer, assembler, or retailer falls under the Michigan Product Liability Act.
Under this law, you must prove:
- That the product was defective in some way;
- The defective product caused you harm; and
- You sustained a compensable injury.
If you claim that the product had a design defect, then you may also be required to prove that there was a practical and feasible alternative design available at the time. This can be a very high burden in a case. If you believe the product that caused you to be hurt was defectively designed, you should work with a product liability attorney as soon as possible.
It may take a great deal of time, research, and working with experts to build a strong case against a design defect. When you allege that the manufacture or seller is responsible for your injuries, then Michigan law also requires you to prove that the product was unreasonable safe when it left the control of the defendant.
It can be difficult to prove a product liability lawsuit. However, your ability to do so is greatly improved when you work with an experienced and skilled product liability law firm such as Davis Injury Lawyers, PLLC.
Pursuing Compensation for a Defective Product Injury
When you are harmed due to a defective product, you may wish to pursue compensation from the manufacturer, seller, or another party.
To do so, you should work with an experienced attorney. You may ask for the manufacturer or retailer to compensate you for your economic damages, including your medical bills, future medical expenses, rehabilitation costs, lost wages and employment benefits, and any other financial losses.
You can also ask to be compensated for your non-economic injuries, such as your physical pain and suffering and your emotional distress. However, Michigan places a statutory cap on your non-economic damages. The cap increases each year. In 2018, the non-economic damages cap in product liability cases was $455,000, as long as you did not suffer a permanent injury. If you suffered a catastrophic injury, such as a paralysis, then you may receive non-economic damages up to $812,500.
If you want to know what your product liability claim may be work, contact our defective product lawyers at Davis Injury Lawyers, PLLC right away.
Michigan’s Statute of Limitations for Product Liability Claims
In every state, you only have so long to bring certain types of lawsuits. These time limitation laws are known as statutes of limitation. In Michigan, the statute of limitation for product liability claims is three years.
This means that three years form the date when you suffered your injury, or three years from the day you discovered that your injury may have been due to a defective product, is the last day you have to file a lawsuit against the manufacturer or retailer. If you go beyond the three years, then unless you fit into a specific exception to the rule, you can no longer petition the court for help.
Three years may seem like plenty of time to file a lawsuit, but you’d be surprised how many people do not file in time. To avoid running out of time, hire a defective product lawyer as soon as possible.
Let Davis Injury Lawyers, PLLC Help You
You should not have to worry about whether the food you get at the grocery store or a restaurant is safe. You should not have to fear that the medical device or prescription drug a physician recommends is safe.
These products should be safe from the get-go. When these products are defective and cause you harm, then you should have the opportunity to hold the product manufacturer and retailer responsible. Doing so may be difficult, but it is certainly not impossible. You simply need the right people on your side.
Our product liability lawyers at Davis Injury Lawyers, PLLC are ready to fight for you. We are not intimidated by complex product liability cases. We will dive into an investigation, gather as much evidence as possible, and fight hard for you to receive the maximum amount of compensation possible.
Contact us online or call (313) 462-7979 to schedule an initial case consultation.
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