How to Hire a Best Product Liability Lawyer in Broward County

by Mark Schiffrin Personal Injury Attorney

In general, pharmaceutical manufacturers are obligated to test products to make sure of their safety. It is their duty to warn the public if risks are associated with the use of these products. For instance, when a drug manufacturer or distributor releases an unsafe product to the marketplace and markets, it passes on to physicians who prescribe it to patients. Some of the patients might experience unexpected harm later. In this case, it is likely that the injured person or his or her close one shall decide to take some form of legal action. It usually initiates with the filing of a product liability lawsuit against the manufacturer or any other party as per the case.

There are multiple solid reasons as to why you need a product liability lawyer.Here are the top legal theories that a product liability lawyer usually uses to safeguard your rights:

•    The pharmaceutical manufacturer brought the drug to market without examining it properly before. It might also be the case where he brought the product to the market even after it failed in the performance of adequate tests.This usually resulted in its release of a dangerous drug.

•    The pharmaceutical manufacturer breached an implied or express warranty of the product. It didn’t work like the manufacturer had promised it would. This was mainly for the FDA-intended purpose.

•    The pharmaceutical manufacturer failed to provide people with a proper warning as to who was taking or who might take the drug in the future. It was the duty of the manufacturer to have warned users about possible risks associated with the use or known side effects of the drug that he failed at terribly.

•    The pharmaceutical manufacturer is legally liable for a defective product that life-threatening in any way.When a drug causes unexpected fatalities or injuries even when patients use it just as prescribed and as intended, the manufacturer surely faces strict liability.

In each of the above case, the plaintiff needs to show that the manufacturer’s actions directly caused harm to you or a loved one. In that case, the injured victim or his or her survivors are usually eligible for compensation.

Time-related boundaries
Your child might have been injured by a defective toy or your new gadget caused property damage to your house. In either of the cases, you have four years in your hand to file a products liability lawsuit. But, the discovery rule is applicable in each of these cases. It implies that the time is counted from the date the facts giving rise to the cause of action were discovered. When you are handling with a product that has an expected useful life of 10 years or less, you can't file a lawsuit if the harm was caused more than 12 years after delivery of the product to its first purchaser. This is called the "statute of repose." However, there might be certain exceptions as well.

Limits on Damages
Florida usually follows the comparative negligence rule. As per this rule, if you are partially at fault for an accident, you may still file a lawsuit, but your recovery of damages will be cut down in proportion to your fault.

Florida also follows the economic loss doctrine. This states that you cannot pursue a product liability claim where the only damages suffered are economic losses such as lost profits etc.These type of damages are left for contract lawsuits.

How is the Liability determined?
There are certain factors that are taken into account while holding someone liable for their harmful product. A court usually discusses two types of theories: products liability and negligence.

Product liability emphasizes on the product itself while negligence focuses on the actions of the manufacturer, seller or distributor or all of them at the same time. You need to show that the product had a defect that caused an unreasonably dangerous condition in order to prove that a defendant should be held strictly liable for a defective product. A product can be considered defective on the basis of its design, manufacturing, or marketing defects.

1. Defective Design
In cases involving the defective design of the product, the claim is that the manufacturer intended for the product to turn out the way that it did. In these cases, it is claimed that the manufacturer's intended design is unreasonably dangerous.

In Florida, the consumer-expectation test plays a vital role in determining whether the product is unreasonably dangerous. If the product fails to perform as safely as a reasonable consumer would expect when using it as intended or in a reasonably foreseeable manner, it is regarded as dangerous.

2. Manufacturing Defect
In manufacturing defect cases, the usual claim is that the manufacturing process has been faulty in some way.This implies that even if the product was designed to be safe, the product that left the manufacturing facility was not in line with that design. When such a product causes an injury while in use for its intended purposes, the manufacturer is to be held liable for those injuries.

3. Marketing Defects
Marketing defects are associated with actions by the manufacturer or supply chain of the product. These claims usually include allegations that the distributor did not or was not able to include adequate warnings about a product that was otherwise properly designed and manufactured.

In these cases, the plaintiff needs to show that there were foreseeable risks of harm posed by the product; that these risks could have been reduced or eliminated by providing reasonable instructions or warnings; and that the failure to include those instructions or warnings that made the product unreasonably dangerous.
In order to protect himself in a product liability suit, a defendant usually comes up with various arguments. He or she may argue back that the product was modified after it left the defendant's control, or that unforeseeable misuse of the product was the only cause of the damage. He may claim that the plaintiff knew about the danger of using the product and assumed the risk anyway. Thus, these cases can take a nasty turn later on. So, you need a Broward professional product liability lawyer like the Mark Schiffrin P.A. who has more than 30 solid years of experience in the field.