Product Liability Lawyers Serving Clients in Rhode Island
The first thing to do after being injured by a defective product is to seek medical care. Even if the injury seems manageable at first, burns, head injuries, eye injuries, nerve damage, orthopedic injuries, and more need to be addressed, no matter how insignificant they may feel. Medical records might also help to connect the injury to the defective product.
Next, keep the product. Don’t throw it away, repair it, return it, let the manufacturer take it, or in any other way alter the defective product before you’ve had a chance to talk to a product liability lawyer. If possible, gather packaging, instructions, warnings, receipts, online order records, photos, videos, and any broken parts. These can help in building your claim and showing how your injuries occurred.
It’s also a good idea to check for recalls. If the defective product that caused your injury was a vehicle, you can check the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s VIN look-up for recall status. If the product was not a vehicle, look to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, or the FDA, if the product was a medication or medical device. But know this: recalls DO NOT protect a company from liability when their products cause harm.
No matter what other steps you take, contact a Rhode Island defective products attorney to discuss your options and rights as soon as possible. Your lawyer will be able to help you in gathering information and evidence, assessing the value of your claim, and assisting you in pursuing the full compensation you deserve.
At Mandell, Boisclair & Mandell, our Providence defective product lawyers move quickly to preserve evidence, investigate what went wrong, and protect your right to seek compensation for all of the ways your injury has impacted your life.
You may have a defective product claim if a product was unreasonably dangerous and caused injury while being used in a reasonably expected way. These cases often involve one of three problems:
- Poor design
- Manufacturing mistake
- Failure to provide warnings or instructions
A design defect means the product’s overall plan or design made it unsafe. A manufacturing defect means something went wrong when the product was made, assembled, shipped, or inspected. A failure-to-warn claim means the company did not give users enough information about the product’s risks or safe use.
These cases are rarely simple. This is why it makes sense to have an experienced product liability lawyer on your side as soon as possible.
The Rhode Island product liability attorneys at Mandell, Boisclair & Mandell have the experience, resources, and expert network needed to uncover what happened and hold the right party accountable.
The most important evidence in a product liability claim is often the product itself. If possible, keep the item in the same condition it was in after the incident. This can help engineers, safety experts, and your product liability lawyer understand what went wrong.
Other helpful evidence might include:
- Photos or videos of the product, injury scene, and your injuries
- The product packaging, manual, warning labels, and instructions
- Receipts, order confirmations, warranty documents, or proof of ownership
- Prior complaints, recall notices, or safety warnings
- The product’s make, model, serial number, lot number, and manufacture date
Product liability cases can hinge on small details. A missing guard, weak part, unclear warning, loose screw, overheating battery, or unstable design can change the entire case. Your defective product attorney will need to be thorough in their investigation to help make sure nothing is missed.
At Mandell, Boisclair & Mandell, our product liability lawyers work to preserve evidence quickly. We can consult with external experts in fields including product design and engineering to build a claim that shows not just that you were hurt, but also how the product itself is the source.
Yes. You can still sue for damages like medical expenses, lost wages, and pain and suffering if a recalled product injured you. Recalls don’t protect negligent companies from liability. They might even help your case.
A recall can show that a company, federal agency, or safety regulator identified a problem with the product. While this doesn’t prove your case, it may suggest a product was defective.
A recall can also raise important questions:
- Did the company warn consumers quickly enough?
- Did the company know about the danger before the injury?
- Did the recall reach Rhode Island consumers?
A recall is an effort to reduce the risk of future harm. This can come both as a reduced risk of physical harm to customers and a reduced risk of financial harm from prolonged litigation for the company. It won’t work to shield a company from liability for injuries that have already occurred or that may occur in the future.
The Rhode Island product liability attorneys at Mandell, Boisclair & Mandell have decades of experience dealing with companies that try to reduce their liability in negligence claims. We are here to protect the rights of injured consumers and to help people harmed through corporate negligence get the fair and full compensation they deserve.
Yes, you might still have a defective product claim even if you did not personally buy the product. It is absolutely possible to get hurt by a borrowed tool, a rented e-bike or e-scooter, a gift, a used product, workplace equipment, a family member’s appliance, a child’s toy, or a product provided by a business. Ownership of the item doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with these claims.
The question isn’t if you bought the product itself, it’s whether the product was defective and whether that defect caused your injury. A person injured by an unsafe product doesn’t have to have a direct relationship with the manufacturer to have a valid claim against them.
That said, these cases can become more complicated when a rented, borrowed, resold, repaired, or modified product is involved. Your product liability attorney will need to show how a defect, missing warning, or unsafe design, not the life of the product, before it reached your hands, was the source of your injury.
Mandell, Boisclair & Mandell has been helping victims of serious and catastrophic injury for nearly 50 years. Our Providence product liability lawyers have the resources, experience, and drive to properly investigate defective product claims, determine the underlying cause of injury, and help you secure the compensation you need to make the fullest recovery possible.
Yes, you may be able to file a defective product claim if you were hurt at work by unsafe equipment, machinery, tools, vehicles, chemicals, or protective equipment.
Many serious product liability cases involve workplace injuries because employees often use powerful products, including forklifts, cranes, saws, ladders, scaffolds, manufacturing machines, construction tools, harnesses, electrical equipment, and industrial chemicals. Even a minor defect in one of these products can result in serious or fatal injury.
A workplace injury doesn’t always mean the issue is between you and your employer. If a defective product made by an outside company caused your injury, you may have a separate claim against the manufacturer or another business. That kind of claim can be especially important when the injury involves permanent disability, brain trauma, amputation, burns, spinal cord damage, vision loss, or wrongful death.
Importantly, defective product claims against a third party can be filed in addition to a workers’ compensation claim. Your product liability lawyer should be able to help you navigate both systems.
At Mandell, Boisclair & Mandell, our product liability attorneys have handled complex injury cases across Rhode Island for decades. We’re not afraid to stand up to powerful corporations or to hold negligent manufacturers accountable. We are prepared to take your claim as far as needed to help you obtain fair compensation.
When you buy a product, you expect that it will work for its intended purpose. Some products, however, malfunction or become defective much faster than expected. In many scenarios, failure of a product may result in serious injury or death.
Defective products often present a threat to public safety. If you were injured or a member of your family was seriously harmed or killed due to a defective product, the product liability attorneys at Mandell, Boisclair & Mandell, Ltd can help.
Product liability is a complex area of law. It takes experience and expertise to handle these claims effectively. Our law firm has been serving clients all over Rhode Island for over 40 years, and we have achieved multiple million-dollar and multi-million-dollar results in defective product claims.
Talk to a Rhode Island Product Liability Lawyer for FREE
For a free case review, please call (401) 273-8330 today. Our Providence product liability lawyers serve clients throughout Rhode Island.
What Are Common Product Defects?
The defects that make a product unsafe can take on a variety of different forms. Three common forms of product defects include:
- Design defects: Flaws in the design of the product. Design errors may result in the production of multiple products with the same defect. If the company fails to issue a recall, many consumers may suffer harm.
- Manufacturing defects: Errors in the construction and assembly of products can also result in dangerous defects. Multiple companies may be involved in the manufacture of a product, and our attorneys will scrutinize the chain of distribution to determine which parties may be liable for the defect.
- Failure to warn: Companies that sell products have a duty to warn consumers about known or foreseeable hazards. If they fail to include warning labels or instructions for the safe use of the product, an injured consumer may be able to pursue compensation.
Product liability claims are often based on the legal theory of strict liability. In strict liability claims, you need to prove that the product was defective and that your injuries occurred as a result of the defect. You do not have to prove that the at-fault party or parties were negligent in the design, manufacturing, and/or distribution of the product.
Alternatively, you can pursue a claim for negligence. Negligence-based product liability claims must prove that one or more parties involved in the design, manufacturing, and/or distribution failed to uphold the standard of care for bringing a safe product to market. You must also show that your injuries were caused by the defect resulting from the negligence of the company (or companies) at fault.
Our attorneys will review your case for free and advise you of your options for filing a claim against the manufacturer and other parties.
Product Liability Claims Our Attorneys Handle
At Mandell, Boisclair & Mandell, Ltd, we represent people from across Rhode Island who have been seriously injured by unsafe and defective products. Our lawyers investigate, prepare, and litigate cases in state and federal courts related to:
- Appliances
- Cars and other motor vehicles, including:
- Airbags
- Crashworthiness
- Tire blowout
- SUV rollover
- Dangerous drugs
- Children’s equipment
- Heavy equipment
- Industrial machinery
- Ladders
- Scaffolding
- Medical equipment and devices
- Sports equipment, including:
- Scuba/skydiving equipment
- Football helmets
- Bicycles
- Baseball bats
This list is not comprehensive. If you or a loved one suffered injury due to a product you suspect was defective, contact our lawyers today for a free case review.
Injuries Caused by Defective Products
The injuries you sustain from a defective product will depend on the exact nature of the defect and how it harmed you. Our firm focuses on cases of serious and catastrophic injury arising from product defects, including:
- Burn injuries
- Traumatic brain injury
- Facial injuries
- Amputation injuries
- Spinal cord injury
- Electrocution
- Bone fractures
- Vision loss
- Drownings
Some defective products result in immediate, significant trauma. In other cases, however, the defect may take months, years, or even decades to result in serious injury.
Who Is Liable for Defective Product Injuries?
In order to recover maximum compensation in your product liability claim, it is important to identify all of the parties responsible for the defective product. To build your case, our lawyers will investigate the following:
- Manufacturers: One or more companies involved in the manufacturing process may work from a faulty design, deviate from the technical specifications for the product, fail to maintain consistent standards for building and assembling the product, and more.
- Wholesalers: Most mass-produced consumer products are sold by wholesalers to individual stores and large chains. In claims based on strict liability, a wholesaler can be held liable for selling a defective product to retailers.
- Sellers and retailers: As with wholesalers, retailers (from big-box stores to independently owned shops) may be liable for selling a defective product.
Whether you are taking action against a small local business or a multinational corporation, it is in your best interest to have an experienced product liability attorney on your side. Qualified legal representation is key to overcoming the potential challenges in your defective product claim and recovering the compensation you deserve.
How Long Do I Have to File a Defective Product Claim?
The statute of limitations in Rhode Island for product liability claims is three years (the same as it is for other types of personal injury and wrongful death claims). If you have been injured or lost a loved one due to a defective product, you must bring a claim or file a lawsuit within the three-year time limit.
You should consult a defective product lawyer as soon as possible if you believe that a product defect harmed you or a member of your family. Product liability claims are time-consuming and complicated. They take significant time and effort to investigate. The sooner you seek legal counsel, the sooner your lawyer can take action on your behalf.
Damages in a Product Liability Claim
Depending on the seriousness of your injuries, you may be entitled to significant compensation in a product liability claim. Our attorneys work with your doctors and other experts to determine all of the ways your life has been impacted by the defective product. Based on the evidence in your case, our team calculates the full value of damages.
Our product liability lawyers will pursue the compensation you deserve for losses, including:
- Medical bills: You may be entitled to compensation both for the present costs of medical care you have incurred as well as anticipated expenses for future medical care.
- Lost wages: You may also be entitled to compensation for the income you lose if your injuries prevent you from working.
- Loss of earning capacity: If you suffer a catastrophic injury that renders you permanently unable to work, our product liability attorneys can pursue compensation for the loss of future income and associated benefits.
- Out-of-pocket expenses: If you and your family incur additional costs in coping with injuries from a defective product (such as travel to and from doctor appointments and physical therapy sessions, hiring a home healthcare worker, and/or modifying your home and vehicle), our lawyers can pursue compensation for these losses as well.
- Pain and suffering: Serious and catastrophic injuries are frequently accompanied by pain and emotional distress. You deserve to be compensated for these losses to your physical and mental well-being.
- Disability: Long-term and permanent disability is accompanied by a number of practical and psychological challenges. Our defective product attorneys can pursue compensation from the manufacturer and other liable parties for inconvenience, embarrassment, and other issues related to disability caused by your injuries.
- Scarring and disfigurement: If the injuries you suffer from a product defect leave you with scars and/or disfigure you in some other way, you may be entitled to compensation for the adverse effect on your appearance and self-esteem.
- Loss of consortium: These damages compensate you and your loved ones for the adverse effects on your familial relationships due to a serious injury. Loss of consortium encompasses loss of spousal services (including physical intimacy, household contributions, etc.), loss of parental guidance, and loss of society and companionship.
- Punitive damages: In addition to compensating you for economic and non-economic losses, punitive damages are awarded to plaintiffs in product liability claims as a means of punishing or deterring the defendant for their extreme recklessness or intentional misconduct.
Our attorneys can also help if your loved one was killed by a defective product. We can pursue compensation for medical bills and end-of-life expenses, the cost of a funeral and burial or cremation, loss of wages and benefits, and other losses through a wrongful death claim.
Contact Our Providence Product Liability Attorneys Today
If you or a loved one has been harmed by a defective product, you may be unsure where to turn. The prospect of taking on a corporation of any size is daunting. When you hire an experienced defective product lawyer, however, you are not alone.
Mandell, Boisclair & Mandell, Ltd has decades of experience handling complex product liability claims. Our attorneys have acted on behalf of clients in litigation against major corporations, including drug companies, automakers, and other large, moneyed parties, and we have recovered millions in trial results.
Please call (401) 273-8330 today for a free case review. Our defective product lawyers serve clients in Providence and throughout Rhode Island.
