Product Liability Attorneys in Belleville, Illinois

On a daily basis, people are purchasing goods with the expectation that those items will work or perform in the way that they were intended. It is an unfortunate reality, however, that sometimes the products are faulty or the company which produced them was negligent during the manufacturing process, and these defects in the products can make them potentially harmful or dangerous for the consumers who buy and use them.

At Nelson & Nelson in Belleville, Illinois, our experienced product liability attorneys understand how challenging it can be to obtain compensation and justice after having sustained injuries or lost a loved one as a result of a product defect, and we are dedicated to representing your interests and fighting for your rights as an injured party. We offer a free, no-obligation consultation to discuss your case, so contact us about your defective product injury or wrongful death.

Types of Defective Product Cases

Product liability cases are very complex because there may be a variety of different parties who might be held responsible for the injuries or losses experienced by consumers. Based on the chain of distribution which begins with the product’s manufacturer and continues up through the retailer on whose shelves the products sit, it takes a good deal of research and understanding of the law to determine who is fully responsible for injuries.

There are three types of flaws on which almost all personal and class action product liability lawsuits are based. These include: manufacturing defects, design defects, and marketing defects. Depending on where the product’s defect originates, that is where our attorneys at Nelson & Nelson will center your claim and develop the case so that you can get the justice you deserve as soon as possible.

Manufacturing Defects

Manufacturing defects occur when a mistake is made when the product is actually being produced, and it will typically only occur in a very small percentage of the final products. This can happen for a variety of reasons such as the manufacturer using substandard materials; and the defect in the product must be present at the time when it leaves the factory or plant at which it was produced.

Design Defects

A design defect of a product occurs when the blueprint creation of the item and causes it to have an unreasonable degree of danger for a potential customer when using the product. Because the defect is present in the blueprint, the hazard caused by the defect will be present in all of the items created using that design. In order to prove that the design was defective from the beginning, our product liability attorneys will determine: if the product’s design was unreasonably dangerous before production began; if the designer could have foreseen that the design was potentially harmful; and if the manufacturer could have used a better, less dangerous design that was economically feasible that would not change the purpose of the product.

Marketing Defects

If the case is based on marketing defects, this means that the manufacturer did not appropriately or adequately provide a warning to consumers about the inherent risks when using or operating the product. Within the theory of strict liability, there are some complex aspects of the failure to warn issue because manufacturers are not expected to warn for obvious dangers such as the sharp edge of a knife or the possibility of falling from a ladder. In this type of claim, the manufacturer would have failed to warn consumers of specific risks that may occur from a natural and expected use of the product.