If you have been injured by a defective product in the State of Utah, you need to consult with an experienced Utah product liability lawyer to protect your consumer rights. Product liability cases protect unsuspecting consumers from injuries caused by defective products.
Contact the office of Parker & McConkie Personal Injury Lawyers for help with your case today at (801) 845-0440.
Consult With an Experienced Utah Product Liability Lawyer To Protect Your Consumer Rights
If you or someone you love suffered an injury from a dangerous or defective product, you should consult with a skilled and experienced product liability attorney. The attorney’s knowledge of the cases – and the insurance settlements typical in cases like yours – will make them valuable negotiators to settle your claim.
The extensive knowledge of the intricacies and subtleties of product liability law will enable your product liability attorney to recognize and stress the vital elements of your claim and use them to your benefit.
Lawyers are also highly sensitive to the time limits on legal actions, helping you to avoid the disaster of missing the statute of limitations. Finally, you should not delay consulting a product liability attorney. Call our personal injury lawyers at Parker & McConkie Personal Injury Lawyers today!
Understanding Product Liability Claims
Product liability law differs from most ordinary personal injury cases. You don’t necessarily have to prove that anyone was careless, depending on the nature of your case.
Instead, under Utah’s Product Liability Act, you must, in determining liability, prove that the product had a defect or defective condition that made it unreasonably dangerous for your use. If you can prove that, you can recover damages for any death, injury, or property damage caused by the defective product.
If you think you may have a claim, you should contact an experienced product liability lawyer. They will discuss the facts of your case. Facts include the date and nature of your injury, when and how you purchased the product and used it, and how the injury affected your life. Your product liability attorney will help you to seek compensation for your injuries.
Don’t hesitate too long to consult an attorney. Utah’s statute of limitations for product liability cases only gives you 2 years to act.
Who Are the Responsible Parties?
The liability for a dangerously defective product extends to any company in the distribution chain of that product. That chain includes manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors, and retailers. However, the following can cloud the liability issue:
- Changed or damaged the product;
- Used the product unexpectedly or uncommonly; or
- Ignored a warning label or instruction included on or with the product.
Often, the potentially liable parties are large corporations or businesses that will have their legal teams prepared to fight you all the way. This is a primary reason that you need a representation of your own.
Different Types of Defective Products
In Utah, the courts acknowledge 3 kinds of product liability cases:
- Defective design;
- Manufacturing; and
- Failure to warn or instruct.
While each claim involves an injury by a defective product, they focus on when the defect that caused your injury occurred in this process.
Design Defects
A defectively designed product is inherently dangerous. In making this product liability claim stick, you will need to prove that a flaw in the product’s design caused your injuries. You must demonstrate that all similar products have the same flaw and are all equally dangerous, as was your perilous product.
Manufacturing Defects
Products with a manufacturing defect are dangerous because of some flaw or mistake in the manufacturing process. To successfully make this claim, you must prove that the factory made a mistake. In other words, when properly made, the product is safe, but the mistake that made your product different caused your injury.
Marketing Defects
In a marketing defect or failure to warn case, a consumer suffers an injury because they aren’t aware of a product’s dangers or how to use it properly. To win this case, you must prove that no one taught you how to use it properly. These kinds of issues lead to the “do not stick your hand in the wood chipper while running” type of warning label you see daily.
Different Types of Product Liability Cases
Product liability claims also differ by the underlying product involved. Some of the more common types include the following:
Medication and Medical Devices
Sometimes a medication doesn’t do what it is intended to do or has undisclosed dangerous side effects. These defective products are the basis for a medication product liability case, which may include a medical malpractice case.
Other times, the issue will arise from faulting or defective hospital equipment. Defibrillators don’t work, breathing machines stop, and reclining beds injure those using them.
Defective products can also include surgical products like robots and tools and defective assistive products like braces, walkers, wheelchairs, and crutches. Product liability or medical malpractice cases will ensue when these failures lead to an injury or death.
Defective Automobiles
Many things can go wrong with a complex product, like a car. Any components can be poorly manufactured, defectively assembled, or you may not have warnings about the dangers involved in a self-driving car. If brakes don’t work, gas tanks explode, and airbags don’t deploy, injury and death caused by these defective products are sure to follow.
Unsafe Food Products
Food cases are usually strict liability cases. You must show that the food was defective and unreasonably dangerous and that the danger caused your injury. You don’t have to show anyone’s fault, however.
Unsafe Toys
These cases are why toys have recommended age ranges on them. Often the party injured by the toy can claim strict liability without showing fault so long as they can prove that the toy was defective and caused an injury.
Other Inherently Defective and Dangerous Products
Sometimes things that you might not consider dangerous turn out to be. One of the most amour product liability cases ever involved McDonald’s coffee. Pintos has gas tanks that tended to blow up, while Corvairs were famously “unsafe at any speed.” Just because your injury didn’t fit into one of the above categories does not mean you don’t have a viable product liability case.
Schedule Your Free Consultation With Our Team of Utah Product Liability Attorneys
Statistics generally indicate that injured parties using a lawyer obtain a higher net recovery than those without a lawyer. Further, you don’t have to pay until your attorney reaches a successful conclusion to your case, either by settling in your favor or winning in court. This payment system is called a contingency fee, and it is what the commercials that say “you don’t pay if we don’t win” are referring to.
Our Parker & McConkie personal injury lawyers will meet with you for an initial consultation and case evaluation at no charge. Because your potential attorney bears the risk of not getting paid on a bad case, they will honestly and professionally evaluate the chances of your success.
Don’t miss your best recovery by going it alone. Call (801) 845-0440 or complete our online contact form to arrange a consultation with our Utah product liability lawyer today.
