Florida Product Recall

Every year, hundreds of products are subject to a product recall because they are found to be unsafe. Toys, baby furniture, children's jewelry, sporting equipment, food, appliances, electronics, tools, clothing, vehicles and prescription drugs all rank among the most commonly recalled products. The one characteristic all recalled products share is that they can cause death, injury or serious illness.

Unsafe products cause an estimated 27,000 deaths and countless accidents and injuries every year. Despite this, the tally of unsafe products sold to consumers continues to rise. Since 1990, the annual number of product recalls in the United States has grown 85 percent. Product recalls issued by just one government agency, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, rose from 359 in 2004 to 472 in 2007. An experienced Florida Personal Injury Lawyer in this field will advance the costs and expenses necessary to successfully litigate these cases.

Who Issues Product Recalls?

Most product recalls come from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Established in 1973, the CPSC is the primary government agency responsible for product safety. It oversees more than 15,000 types of consumer products, from coffee makers and toys to lawn mowers and fireworks.

The CPSC orders a product recall when it determines that a product poses a significant risk to consumers of accident or injury. The risk could be from a defect in the recalled product or noncompliance with safety standards. For the CPSC to issue a product recall, it must conclude that the product poses a danger of causing death, injury or illness.

Consumer complaints are a key way in which the CPSC learns of unsafe products. It receives more than 10,000 complaints every year, most involving an accident or injury. Unfortunately, it is able to investigate only a small number of these. However, the more complaints it receives about a product, the more likely it is to investigate. Since its creation in 1973, it has issued more than 4,000 product recalls, with recalled toys the most common. A knowledgeable Florida Injury Attorney in the Product Recall Claims subject will assist you to successfully litigate these cases.

Other Sources of Product Recalls

Certain types of product recalls are outside the purview of the CPSC. For these, other federal agencies are in charge of issuing product recalls. These agencies and the products they oversee are:

  • Department of Transportation. Automobiles, trucks and motorcycles.
  • Food and Drug Administration. Food, drugs, cosmetics, radiation, medical devices, and veterinary medicines.
  • Environmental Protection Agency. Pesticides, rodenticides and fungicides.
  • Coast Guard. Boats and other watercraft, including personal watercraft.
  • Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Guns and firearms.
  • Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board. Chemicals.

State governments have consumer protection agencies of their own. In most cases of product recalls, such as with recalled toys or recalled food, these federal and state agencies cooperate with each other and coordinate activities.

Voluntary Product Recalls by Manufacturers

Surprisingly, the makers of dangerous products have no legal duty to initiate a product recall. Even so, a manufacturer will sometimes initiate a voluntary product recall. It may do this to reduce its liability for a potential accident or injury or in anticipation of a government-ordered product recall.

Even though a manufacturer is not required to recall an unsafe product, it does have a duty to try to warn purchasers of the danger. If a manufacturer does initiate a voluntary product recall, it still must notify the appropriate federal agency and involve it in the product recall process. A skilled Florida Attorney in the Product Recall Claims area will fight for you.

Recalled Products Go Undiscovered

Unfortunately, product recalls can be slow in coming. Dangerous products remain on store shelves for years as government regulators investigate consumer complaints. Recent budget cutbacks at key regulatory agencies have only added to these backlogs.

Even after a product recall is ordered, recalled toys, recalled food and other dangerous products remain in consumers' homes. In fact, only 15 to 30 percent of recalled products are ever returned. In many cases, no purchase records exist. By the time the danger is discovered, sellers have no way of tracking down recalled toys, recalled foods or other recalled products. An experienced Florida Lawyer in this topic will fight and fight and fight for you.

Children are Most at Risk

More than a third of product recalls each year involve recalled toys and baby products. Toy accidents alone accounted for more than 220,000 injuries treated in hospital emergency rooms during 2006. Most of these accidents and injuries involved children younger than 15. Unsafe toys killed 22 children in 2006 and 26 in 2005.

Some say this surge in product recalls is due to corporate greed. Companies cut corners on safety in order to maximize profits. Whatever the cause, these products pose serious dangers. In recent years, one of the most common dangers in recalled toys has been lead. Some recalled food caused hospitalizations and death. Other recalled products posed risks of fire, severe injury, choking, strangulation, electrocution and other accidents. A professional Miami personal injury attorney in this field will advance the costs and expenses necessary to successfully take legal action for you.

Accident or Injury from a Recalled Product

If someone in your household has suffered an accident or injury involving a recalled product, you should seek legal advice from an experienced product recall lawyer. Product recalls raise a number of specialized legal issues that a lawyer is trained to recognize. The sooner you consult with a product recall lawyer after an accident or injury, the better able the attorney will be to protect your legal rights and preserve valuable evidence.

You need not be the product's direct purchaser or direct user to recover damages. Even if someone else was using the product, you may be eligible to recover damages if it caused your injury. An example would be if the blade on your neighbor's lawnmower flew off and injured you. A product recall lawyer will help you evaluate this. An experienced Florida Attorney in this field will advance the costs and expenses necessary to successfully litigate these cases.

Dangerous Product

We all expect the products we buy to be safe for their intended uses. Prescription drugs, medical devices, seat belts and children's toys are supposed to help us, keep us safe or make our lives more pleasant. When a poorly designed or otherwise defective product causes personal injury, the consequences can be devastating.

Stories in the newspapers and on the evening news reveal that many products we think are safe turn out to be dangerous to consumers.

Under products liability law, manufacturers are liable for injuries caused by their defective products. A knowledgeable Florida Personal Injury Attorney in the Product Recall Claims subject will assist you to successfully litigate these cases.

Products Liability Lawsuits

Someone injured by a defective product can file a products liability lawsuit against the product's manufacturer.

A manufacturer is considered to be negligent when it fails to use reasonable care and thereby causes injury to the user of its product. A products liability claim for negligence would assert that the manufacturer was careless in how it designed, manufactured or tested the product. A skilled Florida Lawyer in the Product Recall Claims area will fight for you.

In addition to negligence, products liability claims are sometimes brought under two more specialized legal theories.

One of these is "breach of warranty." A warranty is a promise that the product will perform in a certain way or is fit for a particular purpose. A warranty can be:

  • Express. This is a clear promise, either in writing or spoken, regarding the use or durability of the product.
  • Implied. This presumes that a product sold to consumers is generally safe and is fit for the particular purpose for which it is sold.

A defective product is one that failed either an express or an implied warranty. If the defect causes personal injury, the victim can bring a products liability lawsuit against the manufacturer for breach of warranty.

The other type of Product Recall lawsuit is based on a legal theory of "strict liability." Under this theory, a manufacturer is strictly responsible for selling a dangerous product even when it was not negligent in designing or producing the product.

Under Product Recall law, someone injured by a defective product can win a strict liability lawsuit by proving:

  1. There was a defective product.
  2. The product came from the manufacturer in a defective condition.
  3. The consumer was injured by the product's defect.

The damages a victim can recover in a Product Recall lawsuit depend on the nature and extent of the victim's injuries. Generally in courts, an award of damages will compensate the victim for:

  • Medical costs.
  • Lost wages.
  • Pain and suffering.
  • Property damage caused by the defective product.

In some cases, courts also award punitive damages. These damages are designed to punish a manufacturer for extreme conduct and to deter other companies from doing anything similar. This would require proof that the manufacturer deliberately sold a dangerous product or disregarded evidence that the product might be dangerous. An Experienced Florida Injury Lawyer in this topic will fight and fight and fight for you.

Our ONLY objective is to seek justice for people harmed by negligence and wrongdoing. We fight and fight and fight for YOU!

If you or a loved one have been injured and need to talk to a seasoned team of professionals, please contact us immediately for a free consultation.

Our Recalled Products Lawyer team stands behind our clients and we go the extra mile to ensure they get the results, the personal attention, and the legal representation they need and deserve. We never charge you a fee unless we settle or win your case.

Our Recalled Products Lawyer team understands how much your future depends on the outcome of your case. We will fight for you and help you recover the maximum compensation available.

We are committed to successfully concluding EVERY case that we take.

Contact us NOW to see how we can help you.

Free Consultation
Tell us about your injury:

Please Tell Us How To Contact You:

Name:
Address:
Your City:
Your State:  
  Zip Code:  
Your Cell Phone:
Home Phone (if available):
Biz phone (if available):
Email:
What kind of case do you have?
Car/Truck/Boat/Motor Vehicle Accident   Medical Malpractice   Slip and fall   Product Liability Case  
Job Related Injury   Outdoor Injury   Nursing Home Neglect Case   Wrongful death   Other  
About what date did the incident occur?   
How did the accident/incident happen?
What is the extent of the injuries?
Have you incurred any medical bills (explain)?
Has a doctor been seen?    Yes     No
Have you filed a claim yet    Yes     No
Was a police report filed?    Yes     No
Were there any witnesses?    Yes     No
Do you have insurance that covers you for this type of incident?    Yes     No    Not Sure
Do other involved parties have insurance that covers this incident?    Yes     No    Not Sure
We respect your privacy