If you are preparing to file a product liability lawsuit against manufacturers, distributors, and other liable parties, you must be aware of all the pitfalls and traps that may be encountered along the way.
As a plaintiff, you have certain rights and restrictions when it comes to suing the responsible parties for your injuries or damages suffered as a result of using a defective product. Today, our Los Angeles product liability attorney is going to outline three essential things that you need to know as a plaintiff.
Filing a product liability lawsuit in California
As a consumer in Los Angeles and all across California, you have the legal right to file a lawsuit against manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers and other parties for manufacturing and selling defective, faulty or otherwise dangerous products.
Your case does not necessarily need to involve millions of dollars or a big-name company manufacturer to help you obtain compensation for your injuries, losses and damages suffered after purchasing a defective product. Do know that the law is on your side as long as you know these three things.
Proving negligence is not required
As a plaintiff in a product liability case, you do not necessarily have to prove negligence on the part of the manufacturer of a defective product in order to seek damages. This may be confusing to many, as in most other liability-based cases, proving negligence is a vital element of a claim.
There are many legal strategies when it comes to suing the responsible parties for manufacturing and selling a defective product, and not all of them involve proving that the parties were negligent. Proving negligence, however, does boost your chances of winning the case, our best product liability attorneys in Los Angeles say.
Proving negligence in every product liability case would mean that you have to know all safety and quality control procedures to be able to prove that the product that caused your injuries was manufactured negligently and/or does not meet safety or quality requirements.
Note: an experienced product liability attorney knows all safety and quality procedures, which significantly increases your chances of proving negligence and winning the case.
In a strict liability product liability case, for example, the manufacturer is held responsible for any manufacturing error that can cause injuries in consumers no matter how careful and cautions they were during the process of manufacturing, assembling or testing the product.
Name multiple parties as defendants
By consulting a Los Angeles product liability lawyer, you can determine all the parties who are liable for manufacturing and selling the product that caused injuries, harm or damages. The more parties you name as defendants in your case, the bigger the payout.
Establishing all parent companies, subsidiaries, wholesalers, and middlemen involved in the distribution chain can help you increase the value of your product liability claim.
Beware of defenses against your case
You should most certainly expect the manufacturer you are suing for a defective product to mount a plethora of product liability defenses to protect himself or herself against your claim, including but not limited to the statute of limitations and shifting the blame on you.
Our Los Angeles product liability attorney from the Compass Law Group, LLP warns that more often than not, manufacturers are not willing to admit their fault without putting up a fight in court. Meaning: expect a vigorous defense mounted by the manufacturer’s top defense lawyers in California.
That is why it is vital to be legally represented by a product liability attorney who would help you craft a strong case, determine negligence (if any), and collect sufficient evidence that the defendants are liable and that you used the product in a reasonably foreseeable manner.
