Defective Products

If you are not at fault for the car crash, it is important to collect as much information as possible. Here are some things you or your attorney can do to help right away:

• Seek medical attention: if you have been badly injured by a defective product, the most important thing is to make sure you seek appropriate medical attention. Do not worry about anything until you make sure you are safe and your injury has been treated.
• Keep the product in a safe place: if you do not have the product, there will be no way to prove that the product was defective. Preserving the product for later inspection is essential to a Minnesota defective product claim.
• Check recall notices: recall notices are a good start to determine whether a product has been deemed defective. You can check for vehicle-related recalls here. You can check for other consumer recalls here. Keep in mind that just because a product has been recalled does not mean you have a case and just because it has not does not mean there is no claim.

There are typically two theories on which an injured person could make a Minnesota defective product claim: design defects or manufacturing defects. A product that has a defective design means that the product was dangerous in its design. A manufacturing defect means that the product’s overall design was appropriate but that particular product became dangerous due to some failure in the manufacturing process.

To prove a product was defective, a plaintiff must meet three elements: (1) the product was in a defective condition, unreasonably dangerous for its intended use; (2) the defect existed when the product left the manufacturer’s control; and (3) the defect proximately caused the plaintiff’s injury. If the injured person can prove these three things, then a jury can find for the plaintiff.

The second part of a Minnesota defective product case is damages. Damages are something that a person lost as the result of their injuries. This can be:

• Past and future medical bills
• Past and future wage loss and loss of earning capacity
• Pain and suffering
• And other types of losses

Minnesota product liability claims can be extremely complicated. You will likely need a product expert at the beginning of the case to analyze whether a case even exists. Throughout the case, you will need medical and potentially vocational experts to give opinions on your injuries, ability to work, and what time of work you can do within those restrictions.

Most importantly, even when a company has clearly put profits over safety, no company openly admits that. In fact, sometimes a company that has acted the most egregiously by disregarding safety will fight the hardest because they do not want to admit what they have done. They also know that their product will likely injure more people and do not want to pay multiple claims. Because of this, they are willing to spend significant amounts of money to fight valid claims against their product to discourage others from bringing claims.

To navigate these issues, it is likely anyone injured by a defective product will need an attorney. The sooner an attorney can get involved, the quicker and more thorough an investigation can be done and the more evidence can be preserved.

At Tyroler Injury Law, we work entirely on contingency fees, meaning you will not pay any fees unless we are able to recover money for you. Consultations are entirely free, and we are happy to give advice to help you in any way we can.

Product liability is a “strict liability” claim in Minnesota. You have four years from the date of injury to make a strict liability Minnesota product defect claim. You can also make a negligence claim in most cases for product liability. You have six years to make a negligence claim. To be safe, all Minnesota product liability lawsuits should be started within four years. If someone has died as the result of a defective product, the trustee has three years to make that claim.