Were You Hurt By A Defective Product?
Our attorneys aren't afraid to stand up to big companies
When you buy any type of consumer product, it's natural to expect that product to work safely and properly. From child safety seats, to power tools, to cutting-edge electronic devices, product manufacturers have a moral and legal obligation to properly test their products before they reach store shelves. But sometimes this is not the case. Sometimes these big manufacturers put profits over people, rushing products to market before they've been adequately tested for safety.
The list of potentially defective products is long and distressing, including a number of products used by children and adults of all ages. From the latest blockbuster drugs such as testosterone supplements to dangerous children's toys, product liability cases can include any of the following:
- Defective Medical Device
- Power Tool Defects
- Defective Lawn Mower
- Heavy Equipment Failure
- Defective Home Appliances
- Defective Ladder
- Defective Car Parts
- Defective Children's Products
When manufacturers fail to properly warn a consumer of a product's potential danger or appropriate use, they may be liable for the injuries that result. In other cases, the manufacturing process may have flaws, such as with defective home appliances that cause fires. No matter how you've been injured, you can count on Gary Martin Hays & Associates for vigorous, bold legal representation in your product liability case. Call 1-800-898-HAYS right now.
Medical device manufacturers are under tremendous pressure to bring products to market. When evidence mounts that a product may not be as safe as originally believed, these negligent companies often continue to sell the product without making patients aware. We are prepared to stand up for product liability victims. We can fight for the compensation our clients deserve after a defective medical device injury. If you or a loved one has been injured by a defective medical device, you may be entitled to compensation.
Did a defective medical device harm you or someone you know?
- Did your hip implant fail or was it the subject of a recall?
- Did a defective defibrillator contribute to a loved one's death?
- Did the heart stents placed in your relative fail to operate properly?
- Has your pacemaker been deemed defective?
If you can answer "yes" to any of the above questions, it's important to talk with an experienced attorney about your rights.
Not every medical treatment will succeed. When a pattern of failure is linked to a product, action is crucial. The manufacturers of defective medical products must be held accountable to patients for selling products that cause injury.
At work and at home, power tool defects cause thousands of serious injuries each year. Some may even lead to a wrongful death case. In many cases, the safety equipment or warnings were insufficient for the degree of risk posed by the equipment.
The following are some of the tools that may cause serious injury if they are defective:
- Table-mounted and hand-held power saws
- Sanders
- Grinders, buffers, polishers
- Welding, soldering, or cutting torches
- Drills
- Nail guns
- Rechargeable batteries used with power tools
Hundreds of thousands of people seek emergency medical care due to a power tool accident each year. If you were injured by a power tool defect, you owe it to yourself to contact our firm. We have experience with defective power tool cases that may help you understand your rights and find the best way to collect damages for the injury or loss you have suffered.
Lawn mowers cause injury to tens of thousands every year, with children under the age of 15 making up a large portion of injury victims. Manufacturers have a duty to account for the likelihood that a child might be present while a lawn mower is in use and include a higher degree of product safety in the design. In this respect, lawn mower injury cases are similar to defective children's product or dangerous toy injury cases.
User error can play a part in lawn mower injuries. When there is a defective lawn mower design at the root of the injury, the manufacturers should be held accountable. Examples of questionable product safety design that may lead to a lawn mower injury include:
- Rider mowers that lack a safety feature preventing the blade from rotating when the mower backs up. An operator who backs up the mower while the blades are turning may run over a child, leading to potential severe injury.
- Zero turn radius lawn mowers often lack sufficient warning of their elevated risk of rollover if the operator attempts to turn sharply at too great a speed.
- Fuel lines and other components within the fuel system may crack or dislodge, leading to an engine fire or explosion.
- Improperly secured or manufactured blades may have sections that break off during operation, creating a sharp metal projectile that may injure a bystander or the operator. This has led to recalls in the past.
Heavy equipment failure is among the many worksite hazards that may contribute to a construction site accident. The power that makes big work machines valuable to productivity can also make them deadly if that force becomes a factor in an injury to the operator or a bystander. This may lead to broken bones, a traumatic brain injury, or even a wrongful death case.
While many types of heavy equipment require a special operator's license, many others do not. Less reputable contractors may have an unlicensed operator who causes an accident while at the controls of equipment that requires a license to operate. Even if the heavy equipment does not require a licensed operator, an accident may happen due to negligence of the manufacturer. The manufacturer may not have included adequate safety instructions. The equipment may not have been tested for all work environments or may not have been assembled properly by a dealer. Any number of factors may play a role in accidents involving the following types of heavy equipment, among others:
- Forklifts
- Scissor lifts, boom lifts
- Bulldozers
- Loaders
- Dump trucks
- Cranes
- Bucket loaders
- Excavators and graders
- Bucket trucks (cherry pickers)
- Backhoes
- Tractors, combines, cultivators and other farm equipment
Defective home appliances cause many house fires that result in serious burn injuries. The fire linked to a defective home appliance may be due to any number of factors: an electric motor overheating, a gasoline explosion, or an electric cable that is not properly insulated or attached to the appliance, to name a few examples.
In other cases, a defective smoke detector may fail to warn occupants of a fire. A defective home appliance may also cause an electrocution injury if the manufacturer does not properly indicate how it will be used, moved, assembled or stored.
The following common home appliances can cause severe injury when defective:
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In some cases a safety defect may be related to an inaccurate or insufficient safety warning on the product itself, on product packaging, or in assembly instructions. We investigate all aspects of an accident to build the strongest possible product liability case for our clients.
More than a half million Americans seek medical treatment each year for injuries involving a ladder. The severity of these injuries may range from cuts and bruises to broken bones and brain injuries caused by a fall. Tragically, these accidents result in hundreds of deaths each year.
Manufacturer defects have been found in stepladders, fixed ladders and portable ladders. Extension ladders can result in a defective ladder injury if the mechanism designed to hold the two sections together fails because the design or materials are not up to standards.
Insurance companies are often quick to place the blame on drivers involved in car accidents. However, sometimes drivers involved in a crash resulting in severe injuries did nothing wrong. Accidents caused by defective car parts happen every year in Georgia and throughout the United States. That's why it's so common to see car manufacturers like Ford and Toyota issuing recalls on their cars, trucks, and SUVs after fatal accidents.
- Defective Tires: Defective tires are a common cause of vehicle rollover accidents, particularly if one of the front tires has a blowout. Drivers are often not aware that a defective tire failure caused their vehicle to lose control, especially in the case of highway accidents where the accident may unfold in a fraction of a second.
- Defective Seat Belts: A common seat belt design defect is the placement of the release mechanism on the front face of the buckle, where it may be accidentally released by contact with another object in the event of an accident. Another well-documented safety design flaw is lap-only belts, which may sometimes be found in the rear of a three-row seating vehicle or the center seat of a bench seat.
- Airbag Failure: An airbag that deploys properly is a life-saver - but if it fails to deploy due to a defect in design or assembly, or if it deploys when it should not, it can be the source of a major injury. In addition to neck and back injuries or spinal cord injury, an airbag failure may cause facial injuries, skin abrasions, fractures and eye damage. The force with which an airbag deploys is enough to cause significant injury if it happens at a low speed (such as a fender-bender in a parking lot).
If a dangerous toy has led to your child being hospitalized or otherwise injured, it is important for you to realize that every organization involved in manufacturing, distributing, and selling a defective toy may be held liable. While auto accidents remain the number one cause of child injury, the toys that your son or daughter plays with every day can also be potentially deadly.
Defective products can injure a child anywhere and anytime, from school or day care, while home with parents or while playing a favorite sport. Our experienced attorneys are familiar with the legal issues involved in a defective product case. We can put our extensive experience to work on your behalf. The Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays has been involved with cases involving product liability, including the following:
- Children's toys
- Playpens
- Cribs
- Walkers
- Car seats
- Clothing
- High Chairs
- Strollers
Proper labeling and clear warnings about any of the hazards listed above must be included on the toy and/or its packaging. Absence of effective warning can by itself make a toy dangerous to a child whose parent is unaware of the risk.
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