Product Liability Claims With Brent Cordell

Defective products cause more than 29.5 million injuries and around 22,000 deaths in the United States each year, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).

Any manufactured product can be defective, however all accidents associated with the product are not necessarily grounds for personal injury lawsuits.

Products are evaluated by the following agencies:

• The CPSC is responsible for approximately 15,000 types of consumer products, from baby strollers to coffee makers.
• Department of Transportation handles automobiles and related products.
• The FDA covers food, cosmetics, and drugs.
• The Department of the Treasury monitors tobacco, alcohol, and firearms 

If a product is found to be unreasonably dangerous, the appropriate agency works with the manufacturer to institute either a voluntary or mandatory recall. 

Examples of Defective Products:

• Design defects, ranging from defective harness systems on child car seats to hair dryers that dangerously overheat, cause million of injuries annually. These occur in the initial planning phase, before the product is created. Manufacturers often discover these defects after products have been distributed for sale and have to launch a recall. The problem with recalls, however, is that they often occur too late or product owners may not know of the recall.
• Defective Manufacturing results from mistakes or problems that take place during production, and may affect only a few items out of many properly working products. Like products with design defects, products with manufacturing def ects are frequently recalled, albeit too late, in many cases.
• Inadequate Testing is a common issue in safety testing. Many corporations test crashworthiness, safety belt effectiveness and other elements at only 40 miles per hour and only in front-end crashes, rendering these tests inconclusive. Other examples include silicone breast implants (long-term effects were not yet known at the time of FDA-approval), faulty electrical wiring, or inefficient child restraint systems.
• Marketing Misrepresentation can include everything from confusing instructions to incomplete warning labels, such as those on prescription drugs.

For more information on defective product liability visit our website at
www.harmful-products.com