Were you injured by a dangerous or defective product in Las Vegas? You shouldn’t have to pay for the negligence of someone else. If a large corporation put their own bottom line ahead of your safety, a Las Vegas product liability lawyer at Blackburn Wirth Injury Lawyers can help you hold the product designer, manufacturer, and other liable parties accountable for your injuries.
How to Recover Compensation in a Las Vegas Product Liability Case
If you were injured by a defective product, a product liability lawyer at our law firm can help you file a claim or lawsuit against the negligent manufacturer and other liable parties. We can help you recover compensation for your current and future medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering that were caused by a product defect. If the negligent party’s actions were particularly egregious, Nevada defective product law holds that you are entitled to punitive damages as well.
Are your injuries permanently disabling?
Did you suffer disfigurement?
Was your loved one killed by a defective product in Las Vegas?
Your Product Liability Claim Could Be Worth Millions
Consumers in Las Vegas suffer injuries from dangerous or defective products nearly every day. In most instances, defective product injuries are minor, and heal on their own. Sometimes, however, the injuries caused by a defective product are so severe that injured victims require emergency medical treatment, lengthy hospital stays, and multiple surgeries. In the worst of cases, people lose their lives because of defective products.
Injury victims who are lucky enough to survive an accident caused by a defective product often face years, or even a lifetime, of medical treatment. Returning to work now, or in the future, is often not an option. In many cases, PTSD from the defective product incident haunts accident victims for the rest of their lives.
Under product liability law, you have a right to receive fair compensation when manufacturing defects cause these and other losses. The product liability lawyers at Blackburn Wirth are here to make sure you do.
How Much Is Your Las Vegas Product Liability Claim Worth?
No defective product lawyer can guarantee how much your product liability lawsuit is worth, but an experienced Las Vegas product liability lawyer can evaluate your case and provide you with an estimate of how much you can expect to receive for your injuries. Typically, the more severe your injuries, the more you can recover.
When evaluating the value of your defective product injury claim, a product liability lawyer will consider:
Economic Damages in Your Product Liability Lawsuit
Be sure to gather all of your medical bills, receipts, and earnings statements prior to your free initial consultation with your product liability lawyer. This information will help us calculate your economic damages, like your medical expenses, lost wages, and other out-of-pocket costs.
Non-Economic Damages in Defective Product Liability Claims
Since your non-economic damages, like pain and suffering, or PTSD, are not attached to a monetary value, determining their worth is a bit more challenging in product liability claims. Your medical records, statements from your doctor, expert opinions, and your own testimony can help your product liability lawyer estimate the value of your non-economic damages.
Are You Entitled to Punitive Damages for Your Dangerous Product Injuries?
Most product liability cases will not qualify for punitive damages in Nevada. However, if the wrongdoer acted maliciously or the defendant was grossly negligent, punitive damages may be available. These damages are meant to punish the at-fault party and set an example to prevent similar acts in the future. Therefore, the amounts awarded for punitive damages are often substantial.
To find out how much your case may be worth, contact a product liability attorney at Blackburn Wirth for your FREE consultation. Call (702) 472-7000.
What Are Product Liability Cases?
In the United States, product manufacturers, retailers, and everyone in the product distribution chain owes a duty to consumers to provide products that are reasonably safe when used as intended. Consumers must be provided with instructions, and they must be warned about the risks that accompany product use, if risks exist. If businesses fail in their duty, and a consumer gets hurt or killed, they are legally responsible for paying for the victim’s losses.
Types of Defects in Product Liability Cases
Product can be defective in various ways. The most common types of product defects a Las Vegas product liability attorney might see involve design defects, manufacturing defects, and failure to warn.
What Is a Design Defect?
A defect that results from the original design of a dangerous product is referred to as a design defect. In most cases, designers and manufacturers do not become aware of unreasonably dangerous characteristics of their products until a defective product accident happens and/or multiple consumers get hurt. Since design defects exist in every unit of the product that goes through the manufacturing process before the design defect is identified, mass torts are common.
What Are Manufacturing Defects?
A manufacturing defect happens during the production or manufacturing process. A manufacturing defect may occur when an extra part is added to a product, when different parts or materials are used to make a product, when mistakes are made during production, or even when a product is contaminated with a hazardous substance. Even when manufacturers identify defects and recall products, they can be held liable for injuries to consumers.
What Is Failure to Warn?
Products must include adequate warnings that notify consumers of the known risks involved with possessing or using a product. Examples include allergen warnings on food products, warnings about side effects on medications, and warnings on power tools and electrical appliances. When businesses fail to warn consumers about product risks, they can be held liable for injuries caused by marketing defects.
Theories of Liability
Product liability law governs various types of injury cases that fall under the theories of strict product liability, negligence, and breach of warranty.
Strict Liability in Defective Product Cases
In a strict liability state like Nevada, the only thing a plaintiff must do to recover compensation for dangerous product injuries is to prove that while the product was getting used in a foreseeable way or in the way it was intended, a defect in the product caused an injury, the defendant was responsible for the product, and that the product was unchanged from the time it left the defendant’s possession. Strict liability does not apply to products that are purchased second-hand.
Negligence
If you decide to sue for negligence, your product liability attorney must show that the defendant owed you a duty of care, was negligent when designing, assembling, producing, or distributing a product, knew about (or should have known about) the danger, and that the defendant’s negligence caused your injuries. Negligence claims can be filed against any negligent party in a product’s distribution chain.
Breach of Warranty
Two types of warranties can be breached, giving rise to a breach of warranty claim for unsafe product injuries. If you file a lawsuit because an express warranty was breached, you must show that the defendant misrepresented the product to you in such a way that you could have reasonably expected it to be safe to use. If you take legal action for injuries involving an implied warranty, your product liability lawyer will need to show that the warranty for a particular purpose or warranty of merchantability was breached.
Common Types of Defective or Dangerous Products
Las Vegas residents and visitors encounter dangerous products at work, in their homes, when they’re running errands or enjoying activities, in hospitals, and while they’re commuting, These products lurk in children’s rooms, in our cars, in classrooms, in the foods we eat, and even in the medications we consume. In Nevada, consumers often suffer injuries from:
Damaged or Faulty Furniture
The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) reports that over two million people suffer injuries every year from furniture that’s poorly constructed, or constructed with cheap materials that break easily.
Faulty Household Appliances
Faulty home appliances cause over 150,000 emergency room visits every year. Design flaws, manufacturing errors, and faulty wiring can result in fires, serious burns, electrocution, explosions, and death.
Faulty Automotive Parts and Defective Vehicles
Lawyers in Las Vegas see many serious injuries from faulty automotive parts. Airbags, steering and braking systems, safety technology failures, defective tires, and even fuel lines cause motor vehicle accidents, explosions, and fires.
Dangerous Power Tools
Power tool accidents can cause catastrophic injuries like lacerated ligaments and tendons, puncture wounds, eye injuries, amputations, and electrocutions. According to the CPSC, over 900,000 people are injured each year in power tool accidents.
Hazardous Children’s Toys
Defective toys injure and kill over 250,000 children each year in the U.S., and 60% of victims are under 15 years of age. Common injuries caused by unsafe toys include: bruises and lacerations, bone fractures, puncture wounds, burns, choking, strangulation, and suffocation.
Defective Medical Devices
Product liability lawyers in Las Vegas and other cities have seen a significant increase in defective medical devices in recent years. Dangerous IVC filters, faulty pacemakers, and hundreds of other medical products that have been recalled by the FDA.
Unsafe Drugs
Prescription medications and over-the counter drugs are highly regulated by the FDA, so they are presumed to be safe. However, unsafe drugs injure or kill countless people when they become contaminated, they lack adequate warning labels, or people suffer extreme side effects.
Contaminated Foods
Contaminated foods also fall under product liability laws in Nevada. Food poisoning and other serious food-borne illnesses are often caused by eating food that’s contaminated with listeria, salmonella, and E. coli. Foods that come in contact with allergens can cause illnesses and death as well.
Defective Airbags
New motor vehicles are equipped with airbags to cushion the impact of a head-on, side, or rear collision. Defective airbags can cause serious injury or death, however, when they discharge unexpectedly, or project shrapnel. The massive Takata airbag recall is the latest example of defective airbags.
Child Safety Restraints
In Nevada, children under six years old who weigh less than 60 lbs must be secured by an approved child safety restraint. Parents and caregivers depend on car seats to keep little ones safe. Unfortunately, restraints fail to provide adequate protection in crashes, and sometimes kids get tangled and strangled by straps.
Do You Need a Product Liability Lawyer to Sue a Manufacturer in Las Vegas?
Nevada law does not require you to hire a product liability lawyer to sue a negligent manufacturer for your injuries. However, the chances of you winning fair compensation in your lawsuit are significantly increased when you have defective product attorneys on your side.
When you file a product liability claim without an attorney, you’ll be forced to negotiate with the company’s legal team on your own. You may have difficulty obtaining medical care while you wait for your settlement. Most importantly, you will have to prove that a defect existed, and that injuries occurred without the help of a Las Vegas product liability lawyer.
You Have One Chance to Recover Compensation.
Hire a Product Liability Lawyer at Blackburn Wirth and Make it Count
Schedule your FREE case evaluation with a product liability lawyer today. Our attorneys accept injury cases on a contingency fee basis, so you won’t pay any attorney fees until we win your case.
