Hurt By a Defective Product?

This video features Trent Shuping, an Employment and Labor Law attorney based in Georgia.

Attorney Trent Shuping | 888-981-5602 | Free Consult

"The manufacturer’s obviously… going to try and blame the victim or the person who got injured."

If you’re hurt by a defective product (i.e. home appliance, machine at work, or a vehicle), how do you know if you have grounds to file a defective product lawsuit? What if you think your injury may be due to user error?

Trent Shuping is a personal injury attorney and partner at the Atlanta-based Warshauer Law Group. In this video, he answers all your questions about defective product lawsuits.

To learn more, contact the attorney directly by calling 888-981-5602 or by submitting a contact form on this page. There is no charge for the consultation, and you never owe any out-of-pocket attorney fees.

Key Takeaways From Trent Shuping:

If you have been hurt by a product, you may wonder if that product is defective. A good way to tell if a product is defective: could the injury have been avoided if the product had worked like it was supposed to? Laws vary from state-to-state governing what counts as a defective product, so it’s a good idea to contact a lawyer if you think you may have a case.

There are three common types of product defects:

1. Manufacturing Defects

Manufacturing defects occur when a product is produced with intention to work a certain way but fails to do so. These defects may come as a result of mistakes or oversights made in the manufacturing stage.

2. Products Without Appropriate Warnings

These products present inherent risk that the company has a legal responsibility to inform consumers of, yet neglected to. Consumers are required to be informed if there are guidelines needed to use the product safely.

3. Defective Design

Defective design defects occur when obvious common risks associated with that product are overlooked. Insufficient design in this case usually occurs due to a lack of sheer common sense.

Manufacturers usually blame the victim.

Manufacturers often argue user error as a reason they should not be held liable for injuries incurred due to the incorrect use of their product. However, unless they issued a specific warning about the specific risk of their product which caused the injury, this argument is invalid. It’s important to pay attention to product warnings, so you know if and when you might have a product defect case that could potentially save other customers from suffering the same pain.

Foreseeable disuse is another important factor in defective product cases.

If a manufacturer should have easily been able to predict a misuse of their product, they are required to plan for this misuse in their design and issue a warning regarding it. An example of this is designing a fan to be used inside a house. Many houses contain children, who could easily stick their fingers inside and hurt themselves. It’s important for the designer to look at these potential foreseeable misuses of their products and design some safeguards against them.

If you are injured by a consumer product, do not throw the product away.

It is essential that you preserve the product which caused your injury in as close to the same form as it was when you were hurt. Other essential evidence for you to keep and provide your legal team with may include pictures of the injury when it happened, a video of the product defect if it is safe to get, as well as all packaging and instructions that came with the product.

To learn more, contact Trent Shuping directly by calling 888-981-5602 or by submitting a contact form on this page. There is no charge for the consultation, and you never owe any out-of-pocket attorney fees.

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