When you purchase a product, whether it’s a new gadget for the kitchen or cold medicine, you expect the product to be safe and do what it was made to do. While many products are supposed to undergo rigorous testing before reaching shelves, problems can arise during the process and make the product unsafe.
A defective product has the potential to severely harm someone and may even put their life in danger. If you or a loved one has sustained a serious injury or illness because of a faulty product, an Albuquerque product liability lawyer can help you.
Buckingham Barrera Vega Law Firm has a long track record of standing up for our New Mexico clients, whether they’re in NE Albuquerque or NW Albuquerque or in Santa Fe, Las Cruces, Taos, or somewhere in between. Our law firm is committed to advocating for those who were hurt because of defective products in the past due to another party’s negligence.
Our lawyers know how complex product liability cases can be. We also know how prospective clients often feel intimidated considering going up against a big company. However, when a company’s negligent actions caused your injuries, they should be held responsible. Filing a civil case is the primary legal option our justice system allows for.
We will tap into all our legal resources and review every aspect of your case to find evidence showing how negligence caused your injuries and losses. We’ll then use our findings when seeking fair compensation in your case.
What Is a Defective Product?Â
When you’re filing a product liability claim, knowing how the product became defective can help you. There are a few stages where negligence can occur when the product is being made. There are a few different defect categories recognized in New Mexico.
Let’s take a look at the three defects that New Mexico law recognizes as having the potential of being unreasonably dangerous, including:
- Manufacturing Process Errors
- Design Defect or Flaw
- Failure To Warn/Instruction Error (Marketing Defect)
What Are Manufacturing Defects?
A manufacturing defect can occur if the manufacturer tries to cut corners to save money. This could mean that the manufacturing company uses cheaper materials or that the negligent manufacturer doesn’t put the product under as many tests as it should.
When there’s a manufacturing error, the product could become damaged during the process. If there is a manufacturing error, it could mean one product or a particular batch of products is defective.
What Are Design Flaws?
When there’s a design flaw, it means there is something wrong with the product that could cause it to malfunction immediately or break down over time. One potential danger of a design flaw is the product catching on fire or short-circuiting. A person using the defective product could get an electric shock. Its user could also suffer a burn injury if the dangerous product started a fire.
What Are Failures To Warn?
Most products have packaging that lists instructions on how to use it and includes warnings that inform consumers of dangers that may not be obvious. If large corporations fail to disclose the dangers a product poses when marketing it or don’t put a warning on the packaging about an issue they knew could arise, then they’re putting consumers in harm’s way, and this could lead to a consumer getting hurt.
When a manufacturer does provide instructions, they must also be clear. If there is missing information or the instructions feature confusing graphics, it could result in a consumer thinking the insufficient instructions were telling them to use the product in a certain way that causes harm.
Careful investigation of the defective product, how it was manufactured, and your injuries will give your Albuquerque, NM liability lawyer a picture of how the accident occurred. A product liability lawyer from our New Mexico office will gather as much evidence as possible to show how the item was defective. Your attorney will also establish how the manufacturer assumes strict liability, or legal responsibility, for the injuries caused.
Conducting this thorough investigation is critical when injured consumers want to pursue damages as part of a product liability claim. Calculating damages is the first step to recover compensation, such as lost wages and medical treatment costs, in a product liability lawsuit case.
Legal Help a Product Liability Lawyer in Albuquerque, NM ProvidesÂ
In New Mexico, you must be able to prove the following four points to show that the company exhibited negligence with their product and that thus, you’re owed compensation. The product liability attorneys at Buckingham Barrera Vega Law Firm will gather the evidence necessary to prove:
- You were owed a duty by the company
- The company breached the duty
- There’s a connection between the company’s actions and your personal injury
- Your injuries resulted in economic and non-economic losses
From your initial, free consultation, the personal injury lawyer you speak with will start the process of connecting the company’s negligence to your injuries. You can also expect our attorneys to investigate the type of defective product that harmed you. Let’s take a look at what kinds of products can be faulty and the harm they can cause.
Examples of Defective ProductsÂ
Any product can be defective if there’s negligence involved. We’ve seen cases of many types of malfunctioning products. Here are defective products that could cause serious injuries:
Household Appliances
Household appliances like ceiling fans and air conditioners could have faulty securing mechanisms that could result in them falling and striking someone. They could suffer from head trauma or broken bones.
Kitchen ToolsÂ
Kitchen tools like blenders and toasters could have major flaws. A blender could have a defect that causes the blades to spin when they aren’t supposed to, which could cause cuts or even amputation. A toaster may have an issue that causes the entire appliance to become burning hot, which could result in burn injuries.
Children’s ToysÂ
Children’s toys could contain toxins that make them dangerous to be around, such as lead paint. These toxins could make a child sick.
Lawncare Equipment
When power tools like lawn care equipment have flaws, the person using them, as well as others near them, could be in danger. Lawnmowers and weed whackers have sharp blades that could cause severe lacerations if they’re defective.
Medical Devices
Medical devices can be found in the home and in hospitals as many people depend on them to improve their quality of life and to alert medical professionals if something is wrong. They can break down, cause infections, or fail to do what they’re intended to do.
Dangerous Drugs
Dangerous drugs may have side effects the consumer wasn’t warned about. If the consumer takes a dangerous drug, they could suffer from a severe allergic reaction or have another type of reaction that will require more medical care to treat.
Auto PartsÂ
A defective auto part could cause devastating car or truck accidents. Issues with tires, engines, steering, and brakes may not be apparent until the person is on the road.
Discovering a crucial part of a vehicle doesn’t work while one is driving is a terrifying experience, and the driver may not know what to do. The faulty auto part puts the driver and the vehicle’s occupants in danger, as well as the other drivers on the road.
To stay informed about defective products, you can check to see what products have recently been recalled.
Countless other products can injure consumers. If you don’t see the kind of defective product listed above, you should still get in touch with one of our Albuquerque product liability attorneys to find out if that’s one of the types of cases that we can help with.
What To Know About a Class Action Product Liability Claim
Clients tend to feel alone when pursuing product liability claims. However, there could be a group of people who suffered injuries because of their use of defective products. Our New Mexico mass tort attorneys will know if your product liability claim would apply to that situation.
If so, your product liability attorney may recommend joining an existing class action lawsuit. Joining this type of mass plaintiff product liability lawsuit against a manufacturer may allow you to more easily recover compensation, whereas it might have been challenging in other cases.
Buckingham Barrera Law Firm Can Help You
Our product liability lawyers know how a severe injury can put your life on hold. You may be in the hospital for treatment, and when you leave, you’ll have expensive medical bills to pay off. Taking time to heal can keep you away from work. Financial stress can make the notion of taking on a product liability claim seem daunting, but our attorneys are here for you.
You can rest assured in knowing that once one of our Albuquerque, NM lawyers develops an attorney client relationship with you, our law firm will take whatever legal action is necessary to ensure the manufacturer who caused you to suffer injuries is held strictly liable for what they did. New Mexico law allows plaintiffs to seek justice by filing insurance claims or personal injury lawsuits to recover compensation.
Our Buckingham Barrera Vega Law Firm attorneys will fight for you to get full and fair compensation for your injuries. You can then use your settlement to pay for medical expenses, make up for lost income, and other accident-related damages.
We’ve successfully helped past clients stand up to negligent manufacturing companies and get the justice they deserve. Our attorneys are eager to provide the same degree of advocacy for you.
Give our Albuquerque, NM law office a call today to schedule a free consultation with a product liability attorney. Our attorneys don’t make anything unless they secure a settlement for you.
