According to U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) data, citizens of Kentucky spent $184,053 million on consumer goods in 2021. And as a nation, we spent over $14 trillion.
With this level of spending comes an implicit trust that the products we purchase are safe for our use. But what happens when consumers are injured or killed by the goods they believe will make their lives better?
If a defective product causes personal injury, product liability law allows victims to recover compensation for the medical bills, lost income, and other damages stemming from the serious injury.
A Lexington product liability lawyer from Thomas Law Offices can provide seasoned legal counsel regarding your rights and options after an injury. Our law firm handles defective product liability cases in Lexington, KY and the greater state of Kentucky.
We represent injured Kentuckians, and we stand up against the big-business manufacturing companies that allow dangerous drugs, auto parts, children’s toys, and other faulty products to flood the markets. The attorneys at our law office fight relentlessly against harm caused by corporate negligence.
To have one of our skilled Lexington product liability attorneys evaluate your product liability case at no cost to you, contact us and request a free consultation. We’ll arrange a confidential and completely free consultation with one of the personal injury lawyers at our law firm.
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How To Know if You Need a Kentucky Product Liability Lawyer
If the following criteria apply to your situation, you may need to partner with a team of Lexington product liability lawyers who can help you take legal action in the state of Kentucky:
- You purchased a manufactured product
- You used the product in the way it was intended
- The condition of the product did not change substantially before you were injured
- You sustained an injury or injuries
- Your injury was a result of a defect in the product
- Your injuries caused you to suffer damages
Product defects can cause serious harm. But the process of obtaining fair compensation is not easy for the average consumer to handle on their own. The complexities of product liability laws, the large number of potentially liable parties, and the challenges of negotiating with powerful corporations and their insurers make these types of lawsuits difficult for even the best attorneys.
We strongly recommend scheduling a free case evaluation at a Lexington personal injury law office like Thomas Law Offices before attempting to take on a product liability claim alone. Our product liability lawyers are glad to help you evaluate the merits and weaknesses of your case without any fee or obligation to work with our firm.
What Is a Product Liability Claim?
Product liability is an area of the law that keeps corporations responsible for the goods they produce and sell. A product liability claim holds the entities that design, create, and market products to a reasonable standard of safety. A claim allows the injured party to recover their losses if that standard is not met. It also ensures that a company does not continue to produce products that injure consumers.
Your product liability lawyers may advise that one or more of the following parties be named as a defendant in your case:
- A manufacturer of a product
- A company that manufactured one part of a product
- A product design company
- A company responsible for product assembly
- A product wholesaler
- A product dealer or retailer
The Three Categories of Product Defects
There are three main types of defective products. They are categorized as those caused by defective design, a manufacturing defect, or by labeling defects.
Almost all product liability claims will cite one of these three product defects:
- Defective Design. A design defect can make a product inherently dangerous before it is even manufactured. Design defects affect all products, not just one batch or a few isolated items.
- Defective Manufacturing. A mistake during the manufacturing process can cause the integrity of one, several, or multiple batches of products to be compromised. A product manufacturer has the duty to guard against and watch for any manufacturing errors that can make products unsafe.
- Marketing Defects (Failure To Warn). Products with potential hazards must have adequate warnings. This category of defect may include:
- A lack of warning label
- Misinformation about the product’s intended uses
- Unclear instructions that could encourage improper use
- Inadequate information about possible side effects or other risks
- Misleading advertising
- Vague, missing, or incorrect directions for product usage
Regardless of whether your injuries were caused by design defects, manufacturing errors, or labeling defects, one of the attorneys from our law office can guide you through the entire process of a products liability lawsuit.
Examples of Commonly Defective Products
A Lexington product liability case can involve any type of consumer good that injures or harms the user. Examples of some of the most common defective products include:
- Medical devices
- Prescription medications
- Power tools
- Lawn and agricultural equipment
- Pesticides and agrochemicals
- Children’s toys
- Household cleaning products
- Food and beverage products
- Auto parts
How Can a Defective Product Harm a Consumer?
Whenever a manufacturing, labeling, or design defect results in a faulty product, the user is put at risk. The trust the consumer places in the product’s manufacturers and distributors is broken.
Here are just a few examples of the type of harm individuals can suffer when a defective product is marketed and sold to the public:
- Serious vehicle accidents that occur when an auto part malfunctions
- Home fires started by defective household appliances
- Poisoning among children who played with toys made from toxic materials
- Cancer in individuals who used cosmetics, sunscreens, or other products containing carcinogens
- Illness, infection, or loss of vision or hearing when personal protective equipment does not function properly
When a situation like one of these happens to you, a law firm specializing in products liability law can help you seek justice for the harm you’ve unjustly endured.
A successful product liability claim begins with a strong attorney-client relationship.
Without first meeting to discuss your case, we cannot guarantee that our past successes in Lexington, KY product liability lawsuits will result in a similar outcome for your case. That’s why we always begin with a free consultation that allows us to communicate in person.
Before helping you seek compensation, we will thoroughly investigate the actions of product manufacturers and other potentially liable parties. Once we can establish that you have grounds to recover damages caused by a defective product, the attorneys from our law office will commit themselves to fighting rigorously for maximum compensation on your behalf.
How Product Liability Claims Make Products Safer
While you might not think of it this way, one of the top goals of every good personal injury lawyer is to make the world a safer place. Our Lexington product liability lawyers do this by refusing to allow behaviors that cause harm and even death to continue without consequences.
Product liability cases have a long history of protecting consumers from dangerous products. If you’re wondering whether legal action against the manufacturer of a dangerous product is of value, take a look at these examples of product liability claims that have changed our society in recent history:
- Cigarettes, a known cause of cancer, now come with warning labels and are no longer marketed to youth because of lawsuits filed against companies like Philip Morris.
- Legal actions against auto manufacturers like General Motors have forced unsafe vehicles off the roads, including those made with defective fuel systems, explosive gas tanks, and faulty ignition switches that caused 124 known deaths.
- Prescription drugs like Vioxx and Bextra, which were found to cause heart attack and stroke, are no longer prescribed to patients, largely because of the work of dangerous drug lawyers.
- After more than 400,000 people filed suit against Dow Chemical, the company was held liable for withholding information about the presence of cancer-causing asbestos and made to open a trust fund that compensated mesothelioma victims, helping them afford medical care.
Personal Injury Caused by Defective Products
If you were seriously injured by a defective product, you may be entitled to compensation for your economic damages and non-economic damages. Under rare circumstances, your case may also warrant punitive damages, which are awarded in addition to compensatory damages in order to punish the defendant. During a case evaluation, a lawyer from our firm can advise whether punitive damages may apply.
The following are some of the most common physical injuries suffered by victims of a defective product incident:
- Burns
- Lacerations
- Broken bones
- Facial disfigurement
- Loss of limb
- Blindness
- Loss of hearing
- Head and brain injuries
- Spinal cord damage
- Internal organ injury
- Poisoning
- Cancer
- Chronic illness
To calculate the full compensation amount to which you are entitled, your attorneys will examine the financial and non-financial damages resulting from your injuries.
Financial Injuries
- Medical bills
- Lost wages
- Lost future earnings
- Property damage
- In-home care costs
Non-Economic Injuries
- Pain and suffering
- Loss of enjoyment of life
- Emotional anguish
- Inconvenience
When Does a Consumer Have Grounds To File a Product Liability Claim?
In Lexington, KY, there are generally three legal theories under which a defective product case may be handled. You will need to speak with an experienced lawyer to learn if you have grounds to take legal action based on one of these doctrines.
Strict Liability Laws
Most faulty product cases in Kentucky involve strict liability. This means that the manufacturing company is responsible for their product and the harm it causes, even if they did not intentionally cause that harm.
This does not require your lawyer to prove that a company was negligent. Your law firm will instead work to show that the product was defective, that you were using it as it was intended, and that the product was not significantly changed in any way between the time it was manufactured or sold and the time of your injury.
Negligence Laws
In a lesser number of cases, your law office may advise that your case would best be handled by working to prove negligence on the part of a manufacturer, retailer, wholesaler, or other party in the distribution chain. This requires proving that an entity owed, and breached, a duty of care. In some situations involving a defective medical device or dangerous drug, negligence in the form of medical malpractice may be a factor.
Breach of Warranty Laws
Express warranties (specifically stated guarantees) and implied warranties (implicit guarantees that a product is not defective or improperly labeled) promise that a product will perform in a certain way. In some cases, the law firm representing you may recommend pursuing compensation under the breach of warranty legal theory.
Thomas Law Offices Can Help You Recover Compensation
The Lexington defective product lawyers from our law office are accepting clients who have been injured by faulty products in Kentucky. If you are a new client, we invite you to schedule a free case consultation at our conveniently-located Lexington, KY law office.
We may be able to help you recover compensation for the losses you suffered. Manufacturing errors and marketing defects have the power to severely impact a consumer’s life. Through our experience across multiple practice areas, we know how to help clients obtain a full and fair settlement amount that lets them move forward after an injury.
Reach out to request your free case evaluation online today.
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