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When you purchase and use a product in South Florida, you have the basic right to expect the product to be safe while using the item. Companies have an obligation to design, engineer, and manufacture their products to the standard safety specifications. They should also contain important instructions to promote safe use, along with any warnings against potential hazards.
Negligence in providing any of these essential precautions can lead to serious or fatal injuries.
If you have been injured because of a defective product, contact an experienced product liability attorney in South Florida right away.
Types of Product Defects
Design Defects – A design defect occurs before a product is manufactured. Such defects are typically the result of inadequate workmanship or the use of cheap or substandard materials.
Manufacturing Defects – Manufacturing defects occur during a product’s manufacturing process. This occurs when the process of manufacturing creates a product that is different from its intended design.
Inadequate Warnings – Inadequate warnings are found in products that pose dangers that are not obvious, and do not provide instructions or warnings against potential hazards.
Items Commonly Involved In Defective Product Lawsuits
Although a defect in virtually any kind of product can lead to serious injuries, there are several categories that are more frequently the subject of a product liability lawsuit. Examples include:
- Pharmaceuticals, including prescription and over-the-counter
- Motor vehicles, including tire blowouts, airbags, seatbelts and automobile rollovers
- Lawn and power tools
- Defective medical devices
- Children’s products, including toys, cribs, car seats and strollers
- Heavy machinery
- Household appliances
- Electrical devices
- Ladders
- Recreational vehicles, such as bicycles and ATVs
- Mislabeled food supplement
- Toxic substance
- Unsafe construction equipment or faulty part
Defective or dangerous products are the cause of wrongful deaths and thousands of serious injuries every year including catastrophic burns, broken bones, amputation, traumatic brain injury, neck, back, and spinal cord injuries.
Product safety should never be taken lightly or dismissed. If you or a loved one, have been injured by an improperly used or defective product and suffered as a result, you should seek skilled legal advice to determine your next steps. Your best bet is to contact a product liability lawyer immediately to ensure you are compensated accordingly.
Gold & Gold represented the parents of a young child who tragically fell off of an amusement ride sustaining a head injury which ultimately caused the child’s death. Our firm discovered several different code violations regarding the amusement ride and the premises owner and ride operator’s failures to correct those hazards.
After a hard fought battle in a vigorously defended case, Gold & Gold held the ride operator and premises owner responsible for their negligent acts which caused the child’s death. Justice was obtained through a $3.6 million settlement.
Types of Product Liability
Any product may be defective causing serious injury or death. Many people are familiar with defective and dangerous prescription drugs, automobile rollovers and tire blow-outs and there are also a number of products such as lawn tools, ladders, airbags, seat belts, helmets or mechanical products that are designed negligently or operate negligently causing injury or death.
This area of law takes highly specialized knowledge and our attorneys know how to integrate principles of engineering and mechanics to present a persuasive product liability claim.
In 2011, our law firm represented the two surviving sons of a woman who was killed as a result of an oversized prescription morphine pill. Also called a “fat” pill, the morphine pill contained a larger amount of morphine than it was for. This woman, the mother of our clients, was prescribed the morphine pill for management of her chronic pain condition.
After several days of taking the “fat” morphine, the excess morphine caused her to stop breathing and she dies in her sleep. Unfortunately, the no morphine pills were discarded after her death, because a police investigation did not suspect any foul play. In order to prove that the pills were “fat” pills containing a dangerous amount of morphine, our law firm retained a top level toxicologist.
Ultimately, the manufacturer of the prescription drug and the pharmacy settled for a confidential amount. One of the surviving sons has since used a portion of the settlement to pay for and attend law school.
At Gold & Gold, our Florida product liability attorneys have the knowledge, skill, and resources to pursue the justice and compensation you deserve. Contact us so we can help you find justice.