Products Liability
Our product liability lawyers represent individuals who have been harmed by defective medical devices, dangerous drugs, hazardous materials, and other types of harmful products. Our attorneys handle these claims in all 50 states. Our law firm handles mass torts and one-off product liability cases – single-event cases where there are few, if any, similar plaintiffs.
Product Liability
The term “product liability” generally refers to consumer personal injury lawsuits against manufacturers of these harmful products, drugs, and devices. A “product” can be almost any manufactured object or device, but product liability lawsuits usually involve chemicals and commercial materials (e.g., asbestos), pharmaceuticals, medical devices, other health products, and motor vehicles.
These claims can also extend to distributors, suppliers, and marketers of products that cause injury or death. Our product liability attorneys see in our law practice how devastating the harm can be when products are made or designed unsafely.
To recover damages in a product liability lawsuit, you must show that the product was defective and the defect caused the harm. If a defective product has injured you or a loved one, a product liability lawyer can help you determine what type of claim you have and how best to pursue it.
Dockets for Class Action MDLs
These are the MDL mass tort class actions that our lawyers are focused on in 2024:
| MDL | CASE # FOR QUERY | DISTRICT ECF LINK |
| Paraquat | 3:21-md-3004 | S.D. Illinois |
| Roundup | 16-md-2741 | N.D. Cal. |
| Talcum Powder | 3:16-md-02738 | D. New Jersey |
| Elmiron | 2:20-md-2973 | D. New Jersey |
| CPAP Recall | 2:21-mc-1230 | W.D. Pennsylvania |
| Paragard IUD | 1:20-md-2974 | N.D. Georgia |
| Hair Relaxer | 1:23-cv-00818 | N.D. Illinois |
| Gardasil HPV Vaccine | 3:22-md-03036 | W.D. N. Carolina |
| Exactech Recall | 1:22-md-03044 | E.D. New York |
| Firefighting Foam | 2:18-mn-2873 | D. South Carolina |
| NEC Formula | 1:22-cv-00071 | N.D. Illinois |
| Social Media Addiction | 4:22-md-03047 | N.D. Cal. |
| Bard PowerPort | 2:23-md-03081 | D. Arizona |
| Suboxone Tooth Decay | 1:24-md-03092 | N.D. Ohio |
Product Liability Lawsuits Against Manufacturers
Product manufacturers have a moral and legal responsibility to consumers to make and distribute products that are as safe as they reasonably can be. When a company fails to meet this standard and makes a defective and dangerous product, consumers have a legal right to sue the seller and manufacturer. Product negligence cases are generally premised on one of three types of tort claims:
- negligence
- breach of warranty
- strict liability in tort.
(1) Negligence
Product cases sounding in negligence are simple: the failure to do what an ordinary, reasonable manufacturer should have done. Breach of warranty is a contract action. Strict liability in tort is a remedy designed to remedy the unfair results that occurred when injury victims were limited to negligence or breach of warranty claims for injuries caused by defective products.
(2) Strict Liability
Strict liability does not mean you can recover automatically if a product injures you. You still must prove that the product was defective. But it does mean that you do not need to prove any particular act of negligence on the seller’s part. Instead, your lawyer must prove that the product was defective and unreasonably dangerous when it left the seller’s control. Accordingly, to recover compensatory damages under a strict liability theory, the plaintiffs’ lawyers must prove:
- that the product was in a defective condition at the time it left the possession or control of the seller;
- that it was unreasonably dangerous to the user or consumer;
- that the defect was a cause of the injuries;
- that the product was expected to and did reach the consumer without substantial change in its condition.
Defective Drug Cases
The common product liability cases in the U.S. involve defective and dangerous prescription drugs (and sometimes over-the-counter drugs). The pharmaceutical industry has a long history of rushing new drugs onto the market only to find out later their drugs cause cancer or other adverse health conditions.
When the hidden danger of the drug becomes apparent, it invariably leads to a wave of product liability lawsuits – often called mass tort litigation.
Examples of current mass torts involving dangerous drugs include:
Defective Products Cases
Our product defect lawyers handle medical device and drug injury product liability cases. But some product defect injury and wrongful death cases do not fall neatly into those categories, and they are some of the most significant mass torts in the country right now. They include these products:
- Hair Relaxers
- NEC Baby Formula Lawsuits
- Talcum Powder Lawsuits
- Paraquat
- Roundup (settlements of $10 billion and counting, our lawyers very high on future lawsuits)
- Pressure Cookers
- OneWheel
- Baby Food
Medical Devices
Another common type of product liability case is those involving defective medical devices. Just like other products and devices, medical devices don’t always work correctly or have hidden design flaws that cause them to malfunction. However, people get seriously hurt or injured when things go wrong with medical devices. Examples of medical device mass torts include:
- CPAP Machine Lawsuits (latest big class action)
- Hernia Mesh (cases that have gone on interminably that will hopefully settle soon)
- Paragard (relatively new litigation that needs some discovery to find out how solid the claims might be)
- Exactech
- Cartiva Implant
Other Mass Torts
Getting Help from a Product Liability Lawyer
Every year, thousands of people are killed by dangerous drugs, medical devices, or defective products that should not have been placed on the market because they were unsafe. If you or someone you love has been killed or injured using a drug or product, our product defect lawyers will investigate the product.
Our product liability lawyers determine whether it caused you injury due to a design defect, manufacturing defect, or marketing defect (usually involving failure to provide an adequate warning or some other improper labeling). In most cases, your defective product attorney will have already done the necessary investigation because most product liability cases our lawyers have seen before.
The attorneys at Miller & Zois have years of experience handling product liability cases on both sides of the aisle. We take both individual and class action lawsuits. If you want to discuss your case with one of our product defect attorneys and get information on a particular class action suit pending, call us at 800-553-8082 or click here for a free Internet consultation.