The millions of products that we depend on to keep our lives moving along sometimes cause terrible injuries to friends and family. These serious and catastrophic injuries can forever change the lives of the injured person, their spouses, and their families.

Basically, defective and harmful products can occur in three ways:

manufacturing defect or mismanufacture – this means that the product has been poorly manufactured, and has some problem with its construction or the materials used to make it. For example, an automobile manufacturer may not tighten all of the bolts on a car before it leaves the factory. A strut or other part may then come off while you are driving, causing a serious injury or death. Automobile tires are also sometimes mismanufactured, and can blow out or fail and cause a wreck.

Any product can be mismanufactured. Considering the billions of products that are bought every year in America, it isn’t surprising that many are poorly made and hurt people. Also, some corporations and manufacturers decide to cut corners to save money. They may use cheap materials, or rush a product to market without fully testing it.

Sometimes companies sell products knowing that people will get hurt, but the lure of money is simply too much. In these types of cases, the Courts are allowed to punish the wrongdoers by awarding punitive damages over and above normal money awards to the victims and their families. Other examples of mismanufactured products include <a href=" lawyer-attorney-1374251.html">tainted food or medicine, infant cribs, strollers and car seats, toys, and toxic chemicals in home improvement products.

Design Defects – some products are poorly designed in such a way that catastrophic injuries can occur. For example, lap belts in automobiles are a terrible idea, and can cause paraplegia or death in a wreck. Even though car makers have known about this problem for years, many of them only recently stopped using lap belts in favor of combination lap belt / shoulder harness designs. Even still, many older cars are still in use, and it is not unusual for someone in a wreck wearing only a lap belt to be left a paraplegic with catastrophic injuries.

Other product design problems can include a lack of safety switches or catches, shoddy door latches, a lack of guards and shields that keep people away from dangerous moving parts, poorly-designed infant cribs and car seats, and shoddy bike helmets.

Failure to warn - Many products look harmless enough, but may contain dangerous chemicals, or operate in an unexpected way that hurts someone. Even though these products may function properly, the manufacturer still has a duty to warn of the dangerous tendencies of the product. Warning labels and packaging are supposed to contain adequate, eye-catching information that tells the consumer about the danger. Many times companies do not do this. When injury results, you may have a claim for damages for the failure to warn.

Here are some of the types of defective and harmful product cases that we handle:

• automobiles
• motorcycles
• all-terrain vehicles, including ATVs
• farm machinery
• medical devices and prescription drugs
• bike helmets
• Jet Skis
• home and commercial products
• ladders
• infant cribs, car seats, and strollers
• toys
• lawnmowers and yard equipment
• electronic equipment

Any serious injury from a product should be investigated immediately. If you have been injured by any product, it is extremely important that you keep the product itself. If you contact the manufacturer, they will often ask you to send the product back to them. This is a very bad idea, because you have given the evidence to the person responsible for the injury. Something may happen to it.

In Kentucky and Tennessee you only have one year from the injury to file a lawsuit against the manufacturer of a defective or harmful product. This really is not very much time. Serious and catastrophic injuries require intensive and costly medical care that may last for many months. Many victims are understandably concerned with their medical recovery, but their precious rights slip away from them as time goes by. Don’t let this happen to you.

A competent attorney needs time to investigate the accident, gather medical records, do research on the product, do legal research, and find the expert witnesses necessary to make the case out against the corporation or manufacturer. This takes time.

It is very important that you contact a qualified attorney immediately following your injury, or as soon as you possibly can. Breen and Morgan has handled many product liability cases over the years, and we take the burden of worrying about the legal case from you so you can focus on your recovery and your future.

We never charge for our services unless we make a recovery for you, and we advance all costs of the case to bring it to a successful conclusion. Please contact us today for a free consultation.