What are Some Facts About Product Liability Accidents and Lawsuits?

• In 2013, the average award for personal injuries related to products liability was $6,392,270 and the median award was $3,123,950. By comparison, the only other field of litigation that rivaled products liability was medical malpractice where the average award was $3,486,900 and the median award was $745,000.
• The most common products involved in accidents included amusement park rides, asbestos, blankets, breast implants, candles/matches/lighters, computers, cribs, mattresses, tires, toys, and medications including Vioxx.
• Roughly 1 in 10 of all injury cases are associated with defective products.
• Over the last few years, recalls of children’s toys have declined roughly 20% but injuries related to the same recalls have increased at nearly double the rate.
• Each year, over 10 millions toys are recalled because of defective conditions.
• Over the last 10 years the FDA has increasingly issued recalls of various drugs: in 2004 it issued 11 Class 1 recalls, 68 Class 2 recalls, and 87 Class 3 recalls; in 2014 it issued 101 Class 1 recalls, 640 Class 2 recalls, and 94 Class 3 recalls.
• Since 2014, there have been over 100 million automobile recalls.

Products liability cases are very traumatic and complicated. Therefore, when we meet with victims of these accidents, they normally ask us how they typically come about. Generally, an incident like this arises when an item malfunctions and injures the person using it. One very common setting is the workplace. Employees are routinely harmed by defective tools. Another source of product injuries is in the healthcare industry. Doctors often prescribe medical devices in addition to prescription medications. However, some of these might malfunction and injure the person using them and cause them great pain and suffering. Product liability cases also arise when the warnings or instructions accompanying a product are insufficient or wrong. For instance, the label on over-the-counter meds might not tell you everything that you need regarding complications. Or the warning on a children’s toy might not spell out the right age range for usage. All of these things normally create the proper circumstances for a products liability lawsuit but there may be others. The important thing to do is to meet with a qualified Illinois product liability lawyer to see if you have a case and to determine what you need to do next.

The ways in which consumers are harmed by defective products mirrors the circumstances of the accident and the makeup of the item. So it’s hard to outline a common set of bodily injuries or accident types. However, we can identify a normal set of harms that these victims frequently experience. First, they sustain some kind of physical injury such as a scratch, burn, or broken bone. Second, they endure long-term pain and suffering as well as other intangible harms like disability, loss of normal life, or disfigurement. Third, they have financial losses from the incident including lost wages, transportation expenses, damaged property, and medical bills. Fourth, and finally, their relatives and loved ones are negatively affected by the product accident in their relation to the actual victim and in their own direct way. You might be harmed in a totally different manner but these are the normally the biggest areas of loss.