Estero Defective Products Lawyer
Most personal injuries, like car crashes, directly affect three or four victims. Defective product injuries affect three or four thousand victims, at the minimum. Because of the significant number of victims, and because these companies often bury negative product information as long as possible, defective product injury cases are very complex.
Only the most dedicated Estero defective product lawyer, like the ones from Cardinal Law, can overcome these obstacles and obtain maximum compensation for victims. This compensation usually includes money for economic losses, such as medical bills, and noneconomic losses, such as pain and suffering. Additional punitive damages are available as well, if the victim proves, by clear and convincing evidence, that the defendant intentionally disregarded a known risk.
Negligent Failure to Warn
Negligence, or a lack of care, begins with a duty of care, or a legal safety responsibility. At the minimum, companies have a duty to warn customers about known side effects. This duty often comes up in dangerous drug cases. As mentioned, companies often bury negative product information, such as information about dangerous side-effects, so the information does not adversely affect sales.
To establish a breach of duty, an Estero defective product lawyer often partners with an expert witness who establishes the standard of care.
Usually, a warning must be proportional to the danger. A possible side-effect like cancer is much more serious than a possible side-effect like a headache. Furthermore, the warning must be in a language most people understand. Very few people are fluent in Legalese or Medspeak.
If a breach of duty substantially causes injury, the aforementioned compensation is available. A substantial cause is different from a unique cause. If a pre-existing medical condition contributed to the risk and/or severity of injury, full compensation is available, as long as the defective product substantially caused injury.
An attorney must prove all elements of a negligence case by a preponderance of the evidence, or more likely than not.
Estero Defective Products Lawyers and Design Defects
The 1970s Ford Pinto is a good example of a design defect. It, and other such products, was defective before blueprints became vehicles.
The company told its engineers to design a light, cheap car that could compete with the other light, cheap cars on the market at the time. To save money and weight, engineers placed the unprotected gas tank just behind the rear bumper. As a result, the Pinto’s gas tank often ruptured and exploded, even in relatively low-speed rear-end collisions.
The company could have fixed the gas tanks for less than $5 each. But executives concluded that the minimal repair costs exceeded the cost of lawsuit settlements. In other words, Ford, like so many other companies, put profits before people.
Manufacturing Defects
Dangerous Takata airbags are a prime example of a manufacturing defect. In the 1990s, once again to save money, Takata replaced a reliable yet expensive chemical propellant with ammonium nitrate, an unreliable and cheap substance.
Ammonium nitrate is basically the same substance that domestic terrorist Timothy McVeigh used to build the Oklahoma City truck bomb.
The supply chain is so long that manufacturing defects are not nearly as easy to correct as design defects. Today, more than a decade after Takata’s irresponsibility was exposed, millions of cars and trucks on American highways and byways still have defective Takata airbags.
Count on a Savvy Lee County Lawyer
Injury victims are entitled to substantial compensation. For a free consultation with an experienced Estero defective product injury lawyer, contact Cardinal Law, P.A. Attorneys can connect victims with doctors, even if they have no insurance or money.
