Product Liability

Product Liability Lawyer Serving Injured Clients in Illinois

When you go to a store in Chicago and purchase a product, or when you place an order for an item online, you should not have to be concerned that using the product will cause preventable injuries. However, for a number of different reasons, consumer products result in serious and even life-threatening injuries much more often than many Illinois residents would like to believe. When you get hurt because a consumer item was defective, you may be eligible to file a product liability lawsuit.

If you or someone you love recently used a consumer product and sustained an injury, an experienced Chicago product liability attorney can assist with your case.

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Learning More About Product Liability Law

What is product liability law? Product liability law is one area of law within the much broader legal field of personal injury law. In short, product liability refers to “the liability of any or all parties along the chain of manufacture of any product for damage caused by that product,” according to the Cornell Legal Information Institute (LII). In other words, if you got hurt as a result of using a product, you may be able to file a lawsuit.

There are many different types of product liability claims, largely depending upon the specific defect that causes injuries. Product liability lawsuits typically fall within one of the following three types of claims:

• Design defect: this type of defect occurs at the very stage of designing the product and before it is ever made. In design defect claims, there is something wrong, or defective, with the very way in which an engineer or another party designed the product. With these cases, no matter how careful the manufacture or use of the product, there is still something inherently wrong with it.
• Manufacturing defect: this particular type of defect occurs at the stage of manufacturing the product. Typically, there is nothing wrong with the design of the product, but when it got made, something went wrong and the product became defective. In other words, the product could have been designed perfectly and with no flaws, but when it was being made, something in the process of its manufacture caused it to have a safety defect.
• Marketing defect, or failure to warn: this type of defect is a bit different than the others we have already mentioned. With a marketing defect, the product may not have any inherent defects—the product itself, when used properly, may not have anything wrong with it at all. However, there might have been a problem with the way the product was marketed. What does this mean? The distributor of the product, or the party selling the product, may have failed to warn consumers about certain risks associated with using the product. Sometimes these cases can arise when the safety label on the item does not fully warn about certain risks. In other situations, a marketing defect case may arise when the product was marketed in a way that did not make clear the potential harms associated with using the product.

It is always important to discuss the details of your case with an aggressive Chicago product defect lawyer who can assess your claim.

Types of Accidents and Injuries Associated with Product Defects

Given the wide variety of consumer products on the market throughout the Chicago area, there are many different types of products connected to safety defects and recalls. Common hazardous products and safety recalls can include but are not limited to:

• Defective auto parts;
• Medical device defects;
• Defective prescription drugs;
• Dangerous machinery;
• Hazardous child products, including toys and practical items;
• Defective furniture;
• Tainted food products;
• Household cleaners and detergents; and
• Other common household items.

Product defects can play a significant role in many different types of accidents and injuries, including but not limited to:

• Car accidents;
• Truck accidents;
• Motorcycle accidents;
• Bus, train, and mass transit accidents;
• Child injuries;
• Workplace injuries;
• Construction accidents; and
• Pedestrian accidents.

When you purchase products to be used at work or at home, you should feel safe knowing that you are not putting yourself, your employees, or your family members at risk of unnecessary harm. Accordingly, when a product defect does cause a serious injury, you deserve to be compensated for your losses. An Illinois product defect attorney can discuss your case with you today and can explore your options for obtaining financial compensation.

Discuss Your Case with a Dedicated Chicago Product Defect Lawyer

Were you recently injured because of a product defect? Did someone you care about get hurt because a consumer product was not designed, manufactured, or marketed properly? You deserve to seek financial compensation for your losses, and a dedicated Chicago product liability attorney can speak with you today about filing a lawsuit. Contact the Finn Law Firm to learn more about how we serve clients in the Chicago area.