Cumming Product Liability Lawyer
Did you suffer injuries due to using a defective consumer product in the State of Georgia? If so, you might be facing extensive medical treatment and expenses, time away from work and lost income, pain and suffering, and other serious losses. You may be entitled to collect damages for your injuries and losses, and a Cumming product liability attorney can help you determine whether you have a case, and if so, the potential scope of the damages that you can collect.
Examples of product liability injuries include automotive brake failures, a defective toaster or blender that leads to injury, or even dangerous prescription drugs. When the consumer of a commercial product is injured in Georgia, they are able to file a product liability claim to seek out reimbursement for medical expenses, lost wages, and other related losses.
One of the experienced product liability attorneys from Spaulding Injury Law can help you determine what damages you might be entitled to and how to get your compensation as quickly as the process allows. Reach out today to learn more about our legal services and your rights and options.
Injuries from Dangerous Products
We purchase and use consumer products every day – ranging from our cars to our dishwashers and stoves to the toys our children play with. These all have the potential to be defective and cause injuries when they malfunction. Even medications researched and approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) can later be discovered to be dangerous and the cause of serious medical harm.
Some injuries that might result from a defective or dangerous product include:
- Fractures
- Head and brain injuries
- Spinal cord injuries
- Serious burns
- Back and neck injuries
- Electrical injuries
These injuries can derail your life in an instant – all because you used a regular product that you expected to be safe.
Many product-related injuries need medical care, and they can also prevent you from working while you recover. Some of these injuries are catastrophic and permanently affect your ability to function in one or more ways. For example, a brain injury can have lasting cognitive, physical, and behavioral effects that often derail a person’s future.
No matter what type of injury resulted from your product-related accident, our legal team is ready to protect your rights as an injury victim.
What Should I Do Right After My Accident?
The experience of going through an injury can be traumatic and can have both short and long-term implications for your health and well-being, in addition to your earnings ability. Immediately after your injury, it is important that you seek out immediate medical attention. Emergency medical care can make the difference between life and death, and it can prevent complications and help your overall prognosis. Immediate medical help can also boost your product liability claim, as you will have an immediate record of your diagnosis and injuries.
After you’ve received the immediate medical treatment you need, contacting an attorney as soon as possible helps you recover the most for your injury as soon as possible. An experienced Cumming product liability attorney will know how to assess whether you have a valid claim. We also have a network of experts ready to help investigate and prove your claims of liability and damages.
Often, the insurance company tries to settle with you for as low as possible, as quickly as possible, and these quick settlement offers are often far too low and fail to account for the long-term implications of your injury. It is never wise to speak with insurance adjusters or accept any offer – even if it seems fair – without first consulting with an experienced product liability attorney.
Product Liability Injury in Cumming
Having an experienced Cumming product liability lawyer on the case means that they will handle all negotiations and communications with the insurance company. They will make sure that you do not receive any less than you deserve – even if it requires filing a product liability lawsuit in civil court. This also allows you to remain focused on your physical health and medical treatment while we protect your legal rights.
Proving a Products Liability Claim
There are different reasons that you are able to file a product liability claim in Georgia:
- There was a defect in the product design that led to the malfunction and your injuries.
- The product was defectively manufactured, which caused the malfunction and your injuries.
- The manufacturer failed to provide proper warnings to consumers of certain higher risks of using the product, such as warnings of possible side effects on medications.
Our attorneys can review what happened and identify whether any of these bases for a product liability claim exist in your situation. You then must provide sufficient proof to support your claims of product defects or inadequate warnings, which can be complicated and technical. Our law firm has the resources to gather evidence of manufacturer liability.
When you have an experienced Cumming product liability attorney from Spaulding Injury Law on your team from the start of your case, your potential to receive full compensation increases due to our strong legal team. Going against the manufacturer, its legal team, and its corporate insurance company alone is not suggested, as you are at a disadvantage and naturally will experience a great challenge in recovering all you are entitled to. A lawyer on your team evens out the playing field and ensures you recover enough to fully cover your past and future losses.
Your Physical, Financial, and Emotional Losses
If you have been harmed by a dangerously defective product, the losses you experience can be considerable, and seeking compensation that adequately covers each category of loss helps to ensure that you will be able to reach your fullest recovery.
Medical Bills
If you have been seriously injured by a consumer good, your medical bills can amass very quickly. Serious injuries can lead to complications and secondary health issues that often require ongoing medical care. If your product liability claim fails to address the full scope of your healthcare needs, covering your losses can be exceptionally challenging. Consider the following common medical needs:
- Emergency care
- Surgery
- Hospital stays and care
- Pain management
- Medical treatments, tests, and procedures
- Care from a wide array of medical professionals
- Physical and occupational therapy
- Rehabilitation
- Prescription medications
Lost Income
You’ve been injured, and this often means lost hours on the job and lost income as a result. Earning less in the face of mounting medical bills is difficult, but if your ability to earn into the future is also affected, the financial loss you experience will be even more considerable. The fact that many of us invest a significant amount of emotional energy into our careers also sets the stage for psychological losses.
Physical and Emotional Pain and Suffering
The pain and suffering you endure as a result of being injured by a consumer good that you purchased for the specific reason of enhancing your life in some way can be immense, and it can impede your recovery. The negative consequences of your emotional pain and suffering should not be discounted.
A dedicated Georgia product liability attorney will help you bring your strongest claim – in pursuit of the compensation to which you are entitled and that you need to regain your health and well-being.
Classifying Product Defects
The consumer goods we purchase can be dangerously defective in a range of important ways that the law classifies into three primary categories.
Design Gone Wrong
Sometimes the product in question is exactly as it was intended to be (by design), but the design itself is unreasonably dangerous. This qualifier of unreasonable danger applies when the product’s inherent risks outweigh its benefits. Often, the court makes this determination by considering whether or not there was a safer alternative that the manufacturer could have employed. An example is an electric fan that is covered by a guard with openings large enough to allow fingers to pass through. It could be reasonably argued that there is a safer alternative (such as smaller guard openings).
The Manufacturing Process
Some consumer products are based on solid designs but are rendered dangerously flawed in the manufacturing process. If, for example, the fan mentioned above was based on a safe design that included appropriately spaced openings, but the attachment mechanism was damaged and the guard was, as a result, not well secured, it is defective due to manufacturing.
Failure to Effectively Warn
Some consumer products bear inherent risks. Power tools, for example, help us make quick work of many of the tasks we take on, but we recognize that we need to take precautions when using them. Manufacturers of products that are risky to begin with are responsible for including the warnings necessary to alert consumers to the dangers involved and for supplying consumers with the instructions necessary to use their products safely.
Failure in any of these arenas can lead to considerable injuries and related loss. Manufacturers bear significant liability at every phase of production – from design to manufacture and consumer outreach.
Cumming Product Liability FAQs
If you’ve been harmed by a defective consumer good, you may have no idea where to turn for the help you need. The answers to the following frequently asked questions, however, may help you find your way forward.
Do I need a product liability attorney?
There is, of course, no legal requirement that you hire a product liability attorney to guide your claim, but doing so is very likely in your best interest. Product liability claims are legally complicated and often require technical testimony, leaving vulnerable victims of faulty products ill-equipped to prevail on their own. Your seasoned product liability attorney will skillfully advocate for your legal rights – in pursuit of your rightful compensation.
Can I afford an experienced product liability attorney?
It’s only natural to be concerned about how you’re going to afford legal counsel after the physical, financial, and emotional losses you’ve endured. This concern, however, should not stop you from seeking just compensation, and most reputable product liability attorneys work on contingency for this reason. This means that their pay is contingent upon (or based upon) your claim leading to a settlement or court award – at which time, your attorney will receive a prearranged percentage. If your claim is not successful, you won’t owe anything.
How long do I have to file a lawsuit?
In the State of Georgia, you generally have two years to file a product liability lawsuit related to a personal injury against the at-fault manufacturer. This statute of limitations begins at the time you realize – or should realize – that you are injured and that the defective product played a role in causing your injuries. For product liability claims related to property damage, the statute of limitations is four years.
What if I share responsibility?
Many claimants fear that their own partial involvement in the injuries they suffer (related to defective consumer goods) will nullify their claims, but in Georgia, this is not how it works. As long as you are not more than 50 percent responsible for the injury-causing, product-related accident in question, you can go after the percentage of your compensation that the manufacturer is responsible for. For example, if your failure to follow the product’s instructions carefully enough leaves you with 20 percent of responsibility in the matter, the at-fault manufacturer will be responsible for covering the other 80 percent of your total losses.
Connect with a Cumming Product Liability Attorney Today
Product-related injury claims are complicated, and it can be intimidating to face off with large corporations and their insurance companies. Some product cases can become even more complex if other people also suffered similar injuries from the same product. Even though bringing a claim might sound stressful, you should never delay in seeking the legal help that you need and beginning the process of financial recovery.
For information on how Spaulding Injury Law can make the most of your product liability case, schedule a free case evaluation and consultation now. Spaulding Injury Law Cumming Personal Injury Lawyers is located at 5860 Bond St, Cumming, GA 30040, United States.
