Florida Defective Design Lawyers for Products That Cause You Harm

Florida Product Liability Lawyers on Consumers’ Side

Manufacturing corporations, distributors, and retailers of defective products have a responsibility to consumers to uphold accepted standards of health and safety, to provide adequate warnings when their products pose hazards, and to remove dangerous products from the market.

But they don’t always meet that responsibility. Every year, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) recalls from 250 to 300 hazardous products – but only after there is evidence that they have caused death and injury to American consumers.

With many of these defective products, the danger is in the design, and the potential for an unwitting victim to encounter a product with a life-threatening design defect is almost unlimited. In one 30-day period alone, CPSC issued warnings or recalls for gas fireplaces, snowboard bindings, bladeless portable electric heaters, battery packs for notebook computers, rider lawn mowers, and LED light bulbs.

Our Attorneys Fight to Hold Makers Accountable for Design Defects

The product liability attorneys at Searcy Denney understand why big corporations keep high-powered attorneys on the payroll. In case after case, we have discovered that manufacturers had known about a design defect for years, but hid or lied about tests and continued to make and market the defective product.

In our more than 45 years’ experience handling personal injury cases, we have represented clients harmed by a wide variety of defective designs:

• Several families and victims who sustained brain injuries and/or paralysis in SUV rollovers because roof strength was not sufficient to protect them – and the SUV manufacturers knew this. For our clients, we have recovered $25 million against General Motors, a substantial confidential settlement from Ford Motor Company, and $10.4 million from Ford in a tragic accident caused by a defective seatback.
• A family whose brand new handicapped-accessible van suddenly burst into flames, severely burning five family members and killing the youngest child, who was trapped in a wheelchair. West Palm Beach product liability attorneys Chris Searcy and Greg Barnhart secured an eight-figure confidential recovery based on findings that the van’s defective drive shaft had pierced the fuel tank, causing the devastating fire.
• A West Palm Beach man and his stepson who had gone hunting and were found dead at their campsite because of carbon monoxide poisoning seeping from their Coleman Heater Focus 5. Warning labels mandated by the CPSC did not say that the heater would produce carbon monoxide, that the heater should be turned off if it did not function properly, or that use of the heater required sufficient ventilation to prevent death from CO poisoning. A U.S. District Court jury awarded a total verdict of $10.1 million to the man’s widow and surviving young children.
• The family of a sea plane pilot who was drowned when his plane plummeted into the water.  In meticulous examination of the evidence, it was learned that bilge pumps installed on the plane to remove water instead allowed water to remain on the aircraft, which flowed to the rear of the plane, shifting the center of gravity and causing the crash. After ten years of difficult litigation, Searcy Denney attorneys Karen Terry and Earl Denney recovered a substantial confidential settlement.
• A 26-year-old woman who died in a fiery crash of the plane she was piloting. The National Transportation Safety Board determined that inappropriate application of the aircraft’s paint caused vibrations that seriously affected balance. West Palm Beach personal injury attorneys Chris Searcy and Chris Speed were able to gain a confidential settlement in excess of a million dollars for the victim’s mother.
• A former physical education teacher rendered quadriplegic when he fell against a padded protective wall on a basketball court. Our Florida product liability legal team’s investigation determined that the wall padding was not safe for its intended use, and that the manufacturers had not performed impact testing to assure its safety.
  

  

Searcy Denney Product Liability Lawyers Available to Discuss Your Case

If you or someone you love has been injured by a product with a design defect, our West Palm Beach and Tallahassee product liability lawyers will be happy to meet with you to discuss your case. Please complete our Contact Form or call us directly at 1-800-780-8607 to schedule your free confidential consultation.

Related Videos