Houston Product Liability Lawyer

As a consumer, you rely on the many products you purchase and use every day, and as long as you are using them in the manner intended, it is unlikely to enter your mind that you might be injured. But it does happen, and due to human error or lack of care in the process of designing, manufacturing, or distributing a product, people are sometimes hurt or even killed. In such cases, it’s vital that you speak with a skilled and experienced Houston product liability lawyer. Pharmaceutical drugs, medical devices, toys, tires, tools, car parts, lighters, and overheated beverages are just a few examples of products that have injured unsuspecting consumers in the United States. In many cases, you have the right to recover compensation for your damages.

Negligence vs. Strict Liability

In most personal injury cases, you must prove that the party you are accusing of causing your injury was negligent in some way—that they owed you a duty of care and by some negligent act or omission breached that duty, resulting in your injury and causing you to suffer actual demonstrable damages. With defective products, you can allege negligence, or you can apply the doctrine of strict liability.

 In product liability cases that allege defective design or manufacture, under the legal theory of strict liability you do not have to show actual negligence. In addition to documenting your damages, you will need to prove:

• That product had a defect that was unreasonably dangerous;
• That because of the defect you were injured while using the product as it was intended;
• That the product was in its original condition, unchanged from when you bought it.

The bottom line is that you should be able to use a product as it was intended to be used, and you should not be harmed by it. If you have been harmed by a product that you used properly in its original condition, you are entitled to recover your damages from the manufacturer and others along the chain of distribution.

If this has happened to you or a member of your family, a Texas personal injury lawyer can advise you and guide you through the legal process of claiming and recovering compensation. In Houston, you’ll find well-experienced personal injury counsel at the Houston personal injury law firm of Gordon, Elias, & Seely, LLP.

Defect Types

There are three main types of product defects for which the company producing a product may be held liable: defects in design, defects in manufacturing, and failure to warn, also called a marketing defect:

• Manufacturing defects are the result of errors in the manufacturing process. They can arise from human error, poor workmanship, or low quality materials and indicate lack of quality control.
• Design defects result in a product that is inherently dangerous, regardless of the quality of the manufacturing.
• Failure-to-warn defects occur when the instructional material included on a product’s packaging or instruction manual fails to point out potential hazards of using the product as intended that would not otherwise be apparent to the consumer.

Defective product cases can be extremely complex, so it is important to make sure the lawyer you choose has considerable experience in this type of action. Your attorney will carefully dissect the chain of distribution of the product—the designer, manufacturer, retailer, and any number of suppliers, wholesalers, distributors, contractors, consultants, quality control engineers and others, depending on the product type—to identify all parties who might have liability for your damages and then will determine which legal theory is most appropriate to the specific claim.

Free Consultation and No Payment Unless You Win

For skilled legal representation in your product liability case, contact the law firm of Gordon, Elias, & Seely, LLP today to arrange a free consultation with one of our experienced and successful product liability injury attorneys. We will review your accident and damages and discuss your legal options with you without charge. We accept product liability injury cases on a contingency fee basis, so you pay us nothing until you receive a recovery award. We front all of our legal work and the expenses of preparing your case, taking the full risk on ourselves.  If we don’t win money for you, you’ll owe us nothing.