A Brief Guide to Florida Product Liability Claims

We place a lot of faith in companies across the globe to use the utmost care in designing and manufacturing the consumer products that we use everyday. Unfortunately, not all manufacturers and retailers deserve this trust and actually put millions of people at risk by placing defective and dangerous products on the market. Whether a kitchen appliance, a medication, or the family car, defective consumer products can cause serious injuries to unsuspecting users. Like many other states, Florida protects consumers from having to cover the costs of such injuries on their own by allowing wronged parties to file product liability claims against negligent manufacturers and retailers. In this short guide, we seek to give you a better understanding of your rights when seeking compensation for an injury caused by a defective product and the legal process that such recovery entails.

What is Product Liability? 

Product liability claims are a type of civil lawsuit that consumers who have been injured by a defective product can bring against at-fault companies for the improper manufacturing, construction, design, installation, preparation, or assembly of a consumer product. In Florida, there are three types of defects that a claimant can rely on when filing a product liability case, including:

• Design defects, which mean that the product would have been defective regardless of how it was built because of the way it was designed;
• Manufacturing defects, which occur when a company is working from a safe design, but still create an unsafe product, possible because of a poor choice of materials or another issue with production; and
• Marketing defects, which occur when the labeling, written instructions, or advertising of a particular product doesn’t safely explain how users should handle the product or warn of potential hazards.

There are a few specific elements that Florida claimants will need to establish in order to succeed when filing these types of claims.

Proving a Product Liability Claim 

Those who are injured by defective products in Florida can receive compensation from the manufacturer, designer, or seller responsible for creating that product as long as they can prove that:

• A defect in the product caused it to be unsafe, even when used as intended; and
• The defect caused the claimant’s physical injuries.

Claimants who are successful in this endeavor can recover compensation for their injury-related damages, including medical bills, lost earnings, and pain and suffering. In some cases, especially those involving intentional misconduct or gross negligence, courts may even be willing to award punitive damages to the victim, which are expressly designed to punish the defendant and deter similar behavior in the future.

Here to Help with Your Product Liability Claim 

If you were injured by a defective medication, vehicle, or other consumer product, call Anderson & Anderson as soon as possible to set up a free consultation. Our experienced Tampa defective product lawyers have been helping Florida residents hold negligent companies accountable for their failure to provide safe products for nearly 40 years. Let us put that experience to use in your own case. Call us at 813-251-0072 to get started.

 Sources:

flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2011/768.81

floridabar.org/practice-areas/product-liability/