Orange County Defective Product Lawyer

Orange County Defective Product Attorney

We all use products on a daily basis, but on occasion, a defective product can cause someone injury. As consumers, it is our reasonable and natural expectation that a product is safe and reliable when used as directed. Unfortunately, defective and dangerous products cause injuries to thousands of people each calendar year, and many of those injured do not realize they have legal rights against the manufacturers and distributors. If you’ve been the victim of such an injury, an Orange County defective product lawyer from Corrales Law Group can help you seek justice—and, in many cases, substantial compensation.

Understanding Product Liability and Defective Products Under California Law

Product liability is a legal concept that refers to the responsibility that manufacturers, distributors, and vendors have to their customers regarding the safety and performance of the products they sell. When a product is defective to the point that it poses a danger, customers can become victims in an instant, suffering serious injuries, permanent disabilities, or debilitating illnesses.

In the worst-case scenarios, defective products have even been linked to wrongful deaths. In such cases, victims (or the loved ones they leave behind) may be entitled to compensation for their suffering.

Product liability can be a nuanced concept. Manufacturers and product vendors are often large corporations with well-funded internal legal departments, which can pose a major challenge to those seeking justice and compensation for injuries related to defective products. There are also hard legal limits placed on so-called “purely economic” losses. For example, you would likely not be able to sue for the projected profits on a defective product you had intended to resell.

On the other hand, California’s Strict Liability principle creates a product liability landscape that is favorable to injured consumers in certain key ways. The state’s imposition of “strict liability” on manufacturers and distributors means that these entities can be held responsible for injuries caused by their products whether or not they had previous knowledge of the defects that caused the injury or injuries.

How Is Liability Proven in a Defective Product Case?

Because strict liability places so much legal burden on manufacturers and distributors, it stands to reason that injured parties must prove certain elements in order to establish this liability. In California, three specific criteria are used to accomplish this. They are:

1. The Product Is Defective – The product in question needs to have a specific defect that results in it being dangerous when used in its normal, intended way. This defect might exist across every iteration of the product or a particular shipment, or it might be a quality control issue specific to a single unit.
   In any case, it must be identified and demonstrated with evidence, an area in which your product liability lawyer from Corrales Law Group excels.
2. The Defect Caused Injuries – The injured party will also need to demonstrate that the identified defect directly led to the injury in question. It is not enough to have fallen ill the day you bought a new product; causation must be established in a legally satisfying way.
   The team at Corrales Law Group has multiple tools available for accomplishing this and can employ the strategies that fit the specific circumstances of the case and highlight key evidence to establish an irrefutable link between the product defect and the injury.
3. The Product Was Used in a “Foreseeable” Way – Lastly, the injured claimant needs to demonstrate that they were using the product in a way that the liable party could be reasonably expected to predict at the time the injury was suffered.
   Note that there can be room for a great deal of legal nuance in the gray area between “reasonably foreseeable” use and explicitly on-label use, depending on the nature of the product and the provided instructions (or lack thereof).

What Is Pure Comparative Fault?

In addition to strict liability, you may want to familiarize yourself with the concept of pure comparative fault, as this principle is also applied to product liability cases in California. Rather than simply ruling that one party or the other was at fault for an injury, comparative fault means that officials can analyze the available evidence and testimony to assign a specific percentage of fault to two or more parties involved in an incident.

For a practical example of comparative fault, suppose you order a high-tech anti-theft device to protect your new automobile, which you purchased for $35,000. Due to an electrical malfunction, the device explodes in the middle of the night, totaling the vehicle. Even if the court finds that you were 90% at fault for installing the device incorrectly and in an incompatible vehicle, you may still be able to sue the manufacturer for $3,500 plus 10% of any damages to your garage, driveway, home, adjacent vehicles, etc.

Because of the pure comparative fault principle, establishing liability or lack of liability in the early stages of a case can be critical to maximizing the eventual compensation package in a defective product case. The product liability team at Corrales Law Group of Orange County can help demonstrate beyond any doubt that it was the manufacturer’s defective product, and not your usage of it, that led to your injuries, paving the way for a substantial settlement or judgment in your favor.

Defining Defective Products in the State of California

Sometimes, it’s obvious: an electronic device catches on fire when first plugged in, or a food product tests positive for contaminants after consumers fall ill. Other times, it can be more difficult to establish what exactly constitutes a defective product. Legal strategies can take several different approaches in this regard:

• Manufacturing Defects – The complex yet fast-paced manufacturing processes behind modern products can lead to a variety of defects. Manufacturing products can vary widely in type and scope.
  This is to say a manufacturing defect might affect an entire batch of products or might be limited to one single product that is not manufactured to the standard of others coming off the same line—in other words, a unit that falls through the cracks in terms of quality control.
• Design Defects – Design defects come in many forms. Some may become visibly evident when a product is scrutinized, while others are hidden within proprietary technologies, or even ephemeral lines of code, within a product’s deep inner workings.
  From unnecessarily sharp corners on a handheld product’s superficial exterior elements to high-tech devices that mishandle customer data, design flaws can result in entire product lines that are dangerous to the consumers who rely on them to enhance the quality of everyday life.
• Marketing Defects – While claims of “false advertising” are sometimes stated flippantly by dissatisfied consumers, the reality is that so-called “marketing defects” can indeed lead to serious consequences, including injuries and wrongful deaths. Inadequate safety warnings, inaccurate labeling, erroneous instructions, and misrepresentations of a product’s capabilities can all provide a basis for legal liability when injuries and other damages ensue.

If you have been injured and need help establishing the defective nature of a product in a way that can hold up in court, Corrales Law Group can help. Please reach out to our Orange County offices at your earliest convenience so that we can begin evaluating your case.

FAQs About Orange County, CA Defective Product Laws

Can I Sue for a Defective Product in Orange County, CA?

Yes, especially when your routine use of the product in question leads to personal injury in Orange County, CA, property damage, or other legally compensable damages. To successfully sue the manufacturer or distributor of a dangerous product, you will need to demonstrate the product’s defective nature, prove that the defect caused your injury, and provide evidence that you were using the product in a normal way that aligns with its intended or advertised use.

What Is the Product Defect Law in California?

When a defective product injures a consumer in California, there are several pieces of the state’s legal code that could potentially come into play, depending on the circumstances of the case. For example, California’s Civil Code of Procedures section 335.1 establishes that injured parties have a two-year window to bring product liability claims against a product manufacturer. Note that different laws may apply to specific types of injuries and specific categories of products.

What Is an Example of a Defective Product Lawsuit?

Claims related to defective product liability can take many different forms. A new model of cell phone that overheats and burns its users during regular use, an over-the-counter medical device that failed to disclose catastrophic side effects, and a guitar that ships with a large splinter in the neck, injuring and disrupting the career of a professional musician who purchased it, would be three very different examples of product liability cases in which a successful claim may be possible.

How Do the Courts Determine if a Product Is Defective?

Because consumer products can take so many different forms, the legal framework for determining whether any given product is defective is not particularly rigid nor based on any easily quantifiable metrics. Any specific tests and criteria used to determine whether a defect exists will vary with the type of product being analyzed. The Orange County courts have a fairly broad authority to take many various factors and types of evidence into account.

Corrales Law Group, Inc.: Helping Orange County Seek Compensation for Product Defect Injuries

If you have been injured because of a defective or dangerous product, we encourage you to contact our office to have your claim evaluated for free by a licensed attorney. Defective products are a danger to everyone, and we would be honored to help you hold the responsible parties accountable so that no other innocent consumers need to suffer what you’ve endured and so that you can secure fair compensation for your injuries.