Were you hurt by a battery that exploded within a mobile device, or maybe a hoverboard? Perhaps a piece of furniture tipped over and caused an injury. Or, maybe your child was able to free themselves from a high-chair restraint and fell suffering injury and trauma. These are all cases of product liability, but they’re certainly not the only situations where it’s appropriate to call in a Riverside attorney.
Riverside product liability lawyers take the damages and dangers of defective products seriously. Product defects can be part of the design, manufacturing process, distribution, or even sales. What you need to do for your product liability case is to prove that the product was ill-designed, defective through manufacturing, or did not have the proper warnings to inform consumers of the dangers.
Hurt By A Product That Seemed Safe?
Everything from hoverboards to TV remotes has seemed safe but caused someone harm. However, the occasional catch of plastic on your finger, delivering a tiny scratch is nothing compared to the Blitz gas can explosions that many people experienced. Everyday products can derail our lives, and it’s absolutely critical that you assess all the damages that have happened as a result of the defective product you encountered.
Balancing balls, strollers, vehicles, and nearly every other product you’ve encountered has had some risk. It is when the product goes beyond the risk and into the realm of injury that you should take legal action. These large companies rarely produce a single defective product. It is very likely that you are one of many people to experience an injury from that particular product.
Establishing Liability in Riverside
Most standards of proof only need to connect the injury to the product and the product to the manufacturer. Establishing that the product was defective is something that requires determining where the liability lies. Did the defect take place because of the manufacturing process, the design, or the lack of warning during the sales process?
Establishing liability can show the design defects themselves, such as the lack of a child-safe cap on a medication bottle. Other examples would include providing contaminated food from the same order and testing it for food borne illness.
Establishing liability is often the most difficult part of these cases. There are so many possibilities when it comes to product liability. It is possible for the manufacturer, wholesaler, or even retailer to be responsible. If another company designed the product and the defect was in the design, it’s possible that they are responsible. It usually takes a well-versed legal professional to pick apart these cases and to determine which party is most labile. There is even the possibility of multiple parties taking liability, and to manage that, you will definitely need legal guidance.
California has a slightly different liability system when it comes to the burden of proof. Unlike 47 other states, Californians put the burden of proof onto the defendant rather than the plaintiff. It’s a very different system because the defendant must work to show that there was no defect.
In the event of a manufacturing defect, the defendant needs to show whether only a handful of products had this defect or if it was a result of mass construction or production issues. Finally, with marketing and warnings, the trouble isn’t intent or possibility but goes directly onto the company.
Damages Related to Product Liability – The Full Scope of Riverside Product Liability Lawyers Damages Requests
Product defects can lead to house fires, poisoning, illnesses, undetected dangers, outright physical injury such as laceration. Kitchen devices that short and cause fires or medication contaminated during the manufacturing process are both examples of product liability cases. So what damages can you claim as part of a Riverside product liability case?
The damage is that you can claim as part of a product liability case are pretty unlimited as long as you can prove them. You can claim any medical expenses that come from the injury sustained from the product defect and any expenses associated with those medical needs such as transportation.
Injured in a Lemon
Most of Lemon Law-related injuries call upon the warranty element of a defective product. It’s possible to collect compensation on a “lemon” vehicle if you were injured because of a crash that happened as a result of defects within the vehicle. It is unclear why but so often when a vehicle has one defect, it causes everything under the hood to fall apart. Product liability and issues with warranties have led to Lemon Laws protecting consumers and putting limits into place on how quickly the warranty provider needs to make effective repairs.
Lemons fall under the general umbrella of product liabilities, and often the liability falls to the manufacturer. However, if the vehicle was purchased at a used car lot, the liability may fall to the retailer if they failed to warn you about known problems with the vehicle.
Finding Support from Riverside Product Liability Lawyers
When you’re hurt because a product doesn’t live up to consumer expectations, it’s difficult to know exactly where to start. You won’t get much help calling the company’s customer service line, and if you purchased it through a large retailer, they might offer you a simple refund, which might impact your ability to access compensation later. The right place to start is with legal support and counsel. If it looks like you have a case that you can move forward, then you and a Riverside product liability attorney can sort through the evidence in your case.
TorkLaw has extensive experience in handling personal injury cases, including product liability. With California’s strict liability regulations and expectations, it’s likely that you will have a favorable outcome so long as you can prove the sale took place and that the product caused the injuries. It is possible to settle these claims quickly and quietly, but if you need to go to court for the possibility of fair compensation, we’ll be right by your side.