As an Arkansas citizen, you should be able to trust the products you purchase. However, when companies don’t properly test their products, the consumers who buy them may face harm. When a defective product causes injury, you may be eligible to file a claim. A passionate and experienced Fayetteville product liability lawyer from McMath Woods P.A. can help you recover the financial losses of your injuries.
While dealing with an injury can be overwhelming, your claim can help you move forward. Our lawyers can provide the expertise to give your claim its best chance of success. When you know how you’re going to pay your medical bills and stay on top of your other financial responsibilities, you can put your energy into recovery and work on getting back to your everyday life as soon as possible.
Hazardous Products That Can Cause Harm
A product’s intentional use doesn’t have to be dangerous for it to threaten your safety. This may lead to some people falsely believing the product they’re using is safe when it has a severe defect that could cause injury. Some examples of defective products include:
- Household Appliances
- Children’s Toys
- Furniture
- Power Tools
- Lawn Care Products
- Auto Parts
- Food
- Drugs
- Medical Devices
If a product uses electricity, there could be a defect that causes the product to malfunction. This could result in a fire hazard, which may lead to burn injuries, or losing control of the device and causing other injuries like lacerations.
Many people depend on vehicles for transportation. If the auto part manufacturer releases a defective product, the product puts the driver at risk of getting into an accident.
Companies in charge of selling food may have unsafe practices that allow bacteria to spoil the food. When people consume it, they can get seriously ill.
Products that you encounter in a medical setting can also put your health at risk. When you’re depending on medication or a medical device to maintain your health, a defective product could put your life in danger.
You expect the things you buy to work correctly and not cause you harm when you use them correctly. When the opposite happens, you’re likely left shocked, hurt, and vulnerable. You shouldn’t have to deal with those damages alone—the responsible party should be held accountable.
If you have a hazardous toy, appliance, or other product in your life and it causes you harm, then you could use the help of a product liability lawyer. In Fayetteville, the lawyers at McMath Woods, PA are here to represent you and get you justice for the injuries and damages you experienced from the defective product.
What Are the Possible Product Defects?
While it may seem like there are many kinds of problems that can make a product defective, there are three main areas where that issue could have started. Our attorneys will investigate the following areas:
- Manufacturing. During the manufacturing process, the company needs to rigorously test the product to make sure it performs as intended and will not cause harm. Should the manufacturing company speed through this phase or ignore testing certain elements of the product, they could miss a problem that makes the product defective.
- Design. If the product has a design flaw, the product could break down over time or malfunction during use.
- Instructions. Instructions printed on packaging need to be correct and clear. If there is a mistake on the instructions or if they have graphics that could be misleading, it could cause someone to incorrectly use or administer the product in an unsafe manner.
- Failure to Warn. The company may know about hazards that could occur if the consumer uses the product in a certain way. The packaging should also include warnings that prevent the consumer from accidentally misusing the product.
If a product manufacturer, company, or seller made any of these mistakes that led to you being injured by their defective product, then you could hold them liable for their negligence. These are the most common ways that a product can be defective, but they’re not the only ways.
If you don’t see what happened to you in the list above, you still might have experienced an issue with a product that warrants a product liability claim. With the help of a Fayetteville product liability attorney, you’ll be able to make sure they’re held responsible for their mistakes that harmed you and prevent other people from being injured in the same way.
Common Injuries from Defective Products
Depending on what happened and which product was defective, you could suffer from injuries that are anywhere from minor to severe. Your injuries could even be deadly if the defect put you in enough danger medically or if it caused an accident. When the defective product caused an accident, you could suffer from injuries like bruises, broken bones, head injuries, spinal cord injuries, or even death if the accident was serious enough.
When the product was a drug or part of the medical field, the injuries might be something like allergic reactions or cause more gradual changes in the body. If the chemical was harmful to the body over time, it could cause other diseases and illnesses that are more serious, like cancer.
No matter what kind of injury you suffered as a result of the defective product, the most important thing you can do is seek medical attention immediately when you realize you’ve been hurt. Getting a medical evaluation helps your health because a doctor can see what’s wrong and start treating you right away.
Medical treatment also helps you down the line if you decide to hire a product liability lawyer to help you file a claim against the negligent party who caused your injuries. Your medical records will be useful to your attorney so that you can have a stronger case later. That’s why it’s essential to seek medical help as soon as possible.
What You Can Recover in Compensation
When you’ve experienced a breach in product liability that led to you getting injured in some way, you deserve to recover compensation for what you went through. For example, if you took Zantac and were diagnosed with cancer that was caused by that drug when the FDA recalled ranitidine products, then you could file a claim against the makers of Zantac for allowing their dangerous drug to be on the shelves and recover compensation from them.
That’s not the only defective product that can injure you and cause you to deserve to be compensated for those damages. When any product harms you and it was the fault of the manufacturer, company, or seller, a product liability claim can be filed so that you can financially recover what you’re owed for the damage you suffered.
With a product liability lawyer from our firm on your side, you’ll be able to get full and fair compensation that takes into account:
- Medical bills
- Treatment costs
- Lost wages
- Pain and suffering
- Loss of enjoyment of life
- Loss of consortium
If the product caused you to be unable to work indefinitely, then you could even deserve compensation for future lost earnings as well as future medical costs to further treat your injuries. There are many aspects that you can financially recover from, and a product liability attorney will be your greatest benefit when trying to recover what you deserve from the responsible party.
With a lawyer from our Fayetteville office on your side, you can rest assured that your claim will be as strong as possible. We’ll collect all relevant information so that we can build your case and prove that the product manufacturer, company, or seller were at fault for distributing the product. You can trust that we’ll fight to get you full and fair compensation for the damages you’ve suffered and we won’t let you settle for less than you deserve.
The Advantages of Having a Product Liability Lawyer
When one of our reliable attorneys is at your side, you know we’re protecting your best interests. Oftentimes, after an accident, an insurance company may try to get you to settle early or you may wonder if going through the legal process is worth it. Settling early could mean you get less compensation than you deserve.
Speaking with insurance adjusters when you don’t know if you’re going to settle early can still harm your compensation. If you make any official statements about the product that hurt you or how you’re feeling, the insurance company can use that information against you in an effort to lower your settlement amount.
Our lawyers will be at your side every step of the way. You won’t have to worry about putting your claim in jeopardy and we’ll always keep you informed about what’s happening with your case. The best thing you can do is get in touch with us today. We’ll meet in an obligation-free consultation to go over the details of your case and find out how we can help you.
