The Ramirez Legal Group Is Your
Defective Products Attorney
Why Choose Us?
At The Ramirez Legal Group, our clients are our main priority, not our profits. Our guiding principle is quality over quantity--quality of results and service over quantity of clients and profits.
What Kind of Compensation May I Be Entitled To?
If you have been injured due to someone else's fault in Southern California, you may eligible to receive monetary compensation for many different types of expenses and more.
Learn More
When someone is injured as a result of a product or medication being defective or having unintended consequences, they may be entitled to compensation from the manufacturer of the product or medication all the way down to the seller of the product or medication. This area of law is referred to as Products Liability.
There are three ways in which a product can be legally defective:
- Manufacturing Defect:
During the manufacturing process, one or more of the products did not come out the way it was intended to.
Example: Car manufacturer, Chevfordhey, manufactures 500,000 trucks. In 300 out of these 500,000 trucks produced, however, unbeknownst to Chevfordhey, the airbag crash sensor is not properly connected to the airbag unit. Mary, a Chevfordhey customer, goes to a Chevfordhey dealership and unknowingly buys one of the 300 trucks with the airbag defect. As Mary is driving home with her brand-new truck, she gets into a head-on collision going 35 miles per hour. As a result of the airbag unit not receiving a signal from the airbag crash sensor, Mary’s airbag does not go off, allowing Mary’s head to strike the steering wheel. Maryconsequently suffers a head injury. - Design Defect:
Even before the product is manufactured, there is a flaw in the design of the product making it dangerous.
Example: Car manufacturer, Chevfordhey’s star engineer from Germany, Fredrick Von Shingle Shangle, comes up with a way to make Chevfordhey’s cars fly. However, in his excitement, Frederick forgets to design the parts surrounding the jet fuel combustor with non-flammable materials. Peter, a Chevfordhey customer, goes to a Chevfordhey dealership and buys one of their new flying cars. As Peter is flying home in his brand-new flying car, a spark from the combustor lands on a turbine blade causing it to catch on fire. The fire spreads and causes Peter’s flying car to crash. As a result, Peter is badly injured. - Warning Defect:
The product does not come with adequate warnings or instructions.
Example: Car manufacturer, Chevfordhey, designs and manufactures its flying car perfectly. However, although it is foreseeable that its customers might fly the car above 8,000 feet, it fails to include warnings inside the car or in the driver’s manual that the car should not be flown above 8,000 feet because the occupants of the vehicle may experience altitude sickness, and even death. After buying a brand-new flying car from a Chevfordhey dealership, Paul takes his new car for a spin in the clouds. As he flies above 8,000 miles, he begins to feel light-headed and within a few seconds, he passes out. Luckily, for Paul, the car is equipped with auto-pilot which keeps it from crashing but the time he spends without sufficient oxygen causes him to sustain brain damage.
Strict Products Liability
Unlike the case for many other types of accidents, in California, to receive compensation for an injury caused by a defective product (including medication), you don’t have to necessarily prove that the manufacturer, distributor, or seller/lessor of the product did something wrong. This is known as Strict Products Liability. Strict products liability arose from policy considerations, including that those involved in the distribution chain of a particular product are in a much better position than consumers to ensure their products are not unreasonably dangerous.
For strict products liability to apply, you must prove that your physical or emotional harm was caused by a product that:
- Contained a manufacturing defect;
- Was defectively designed; or
- Failed to include adequate warnings or instructions.
Manufacturing Defect
In order to prove that the product that caused you physical or emotional harm contained a manufacturing defect, you must prove all four of the following:
- That the party you think is responsible either manufactured, distributed, or sold the product;
- That the product contained a manufacturing defect when it left the possession of the party you think is responsible;
- That you were harmed; and
- The product’s defect was a substantial factor in causing your harm.
Design Defect
In order to prove that the product that caused you physical or emotional harm contained a design defect, you must satisfy either one of two tests—the Consumer Expectation Test or the Risk-Benefit Test.
- Consumer Expectation Test.
Under the consumer expectation test, you must prove all of the following:- 1. That the party you think is responsible either manufactured, distributed, or sold the product;
- 2. That the product did not perform as safely as an ordinary consumer would have expected it to perform when used or misused in an intended or reasonably foreseeable way;
- 3. That you were harmed; and
- 4. The product’s defect was a substantial factor in causing your harm.
- Risk-Benefit Test.
The risk-benefit test a little more complicated than the consumer expectation test. First, you must prove all of the following:- 1. That the party you think is responsible either manufactured, distributed, or sold the product;
- 2. That you were harmed; and
- 3. The product’s defect was a substantial factor in causing your harm.
However, even if you prove all three of the above, the entity you think is responsible may still beat your claim if it can prove that the benefits of the product’s design outweigh the risks of danger in the design.
The following things are considered in determining whether the benefits of the design outweigh the risks of danger in the design:
- The seriousness of the potential harm resulting from use of the product;
- The likelihood that this harm will occur;
- How easy or difficult it would be to manufacture the product with a different, safer design;
- The cost of a safer different design;
- The disadvantages of an alternative safer design; and
- Other factors.
Failure to Contain Adequate Warnings or Instructions
In order to prove that the product that caused you physical or emotional harm failed to contain adequate warnings or instructions, you must prove all of the following:
- That the party you think is responsible either manufactured, distributed, or sold the product;
- That the product had potential risks, side effects, or allergic reactions that were known or knowable to the party you think is responsible, in light of what was generally known and accepted by the scientific or medical community;
- That the potential risks, side effects, or allergic reactions were substantially dangerous when the product was used or misused in an intended or reasonably foreseeable way;
- That ordinary consumers would not have a way of knowing about the product’s potential risks, side effects, or allergic reactions;
- That the party you think is responsible failed to adequately warn or instruct you (consumers) of the potential risks, side effects, or allergic reactions;
- That you were harmed; and
- That the lack of sufficient warnings or instructions was a substantial factor in in causing your harm.
Why Hire An Attorney for Your Defective Products Case?
Parties that may be held responsible for products liability range from the supplier of a component part used to make the product to a business that rents out the product to the public. In short, most parties involved in the product’s chain of commerce may be held responsible.
Products liability is a very complex area of law that requires experts in fields such as medicine and engineering. For this reason, products liability cases are also very costly. If you were injured by a defective product or medication, it is crucial that you hire an experienced products liability lawyer as soon as possible. Luckily, we have experience dealing with these types of cases and we can help.
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