Defective Products

CHARITY FREEMAN

Every year hundreds of Indiana consumers are injured by products that are dangerous or defective, despite the fact that there is a federal agency, the Consumer Product Safety Commission. It is charged with protecting the public from unreasonable risk or death from consumer products. There is still a lot of dangerous product out there. Here today to talk to us about the legal claims that arise from dangerous or defective products is David Farnbauch, personal injury lawyer from the Sweeney Law Firm in Fort Wayne, Indiana. David thanks for joining us today.

DAVID FARNBAUCH

It's great to be here. 

CHARITY FREEMAN

From your perspective why are so many adults and children harmed by defective consumer products every year?

DAVID FARNBAUCH

I think that one of the reasons why we see so many injuries from defective products is that oftentimes these products are put on to the marketplace with very little testing, before they are put on store shelves.

CHARITY FREEMAN

What role do government agencies like the Consumer Product Safety Commission play in keeping these dangerous and defective products off the market?

DAVID FARNBAUCH

Well the Consumer Product Safety Commission is a governmental agency that really serves as a watchdog and keeps statistics information on harmful products. They have a website that consumers can visit to check on whether there has been complaints or issues related to a particular product. 

CHARITY FREEMAN

Under what circumstances can the manufacturer of the product be held liable if the person using their product is injured?   

DAVID FARNBAUCH

Well, a product liability case involves a product that is unreasonably dangerous to consumers. So, if a product does not perform as it's expected to perform or if it malfunctions or does something that causes an injury that should not be expected with the use of that product, there's potentially a legal case flowing from that injury.

CHARITY FREEMAN

Are there many lawyers or law firms that can handle product liability cases or is it a specialized area?

DAVID FARNBAUCH

I would say that there are very few law firms that do handle product liability cases and the primary reason for that is that any type of a product reliability claim you are going to be going up against a manufacturer that is normally going to be very well insured and have a lot of sophistication with the funding of these types of cases. So, it takes a significant amount of financial resources to handle a product reliability claim, so therefore very few law firms handle these cases.

CHARITY FREEMAN

David what if one of our viewers is injured by a product that was defective or did not perform as it was supposed to. What is the first step they would take in pursuing a legal claim?

DAVID FARNBAUCH

Well I think the first step with any type of product reliability case, this sounds simple, but it's important to retain the evidence. Oftentimes in product reliability cases something happens to the machine or the part or whatever that malfunctions, so it is very important to maintain the evidence. The other important advice that I can give is for viewers if you are involved in a product reliability claim, oftentimes there will be investigators or insurance adjusters that are dispatched to the person's home to obtain a statement, I would counsel someone not to give a statement unless you have spoken with an attorney first. Then the other advice that I would give is that if you were injured as a result of a product that malfunctioned I would contact the law firm with experience in handling product reliability claims.

CHARITY FREEMAN

Mr. Farnbauch thank you so much we appreciate the information that you shared with us today about product reliability cases.

DAVID FARNBAUCH

I was great to be here.