Defective Products and Product Liability Lawsuits

Get the Latest News On Lawsuits About Dangerous Products and Services

At Lawsuit Tracker, we share updates and information about products and services that have harmed consumers. We track product liability lawsuits throughout the legal process and share information so people can better understand the complexities surrounding these topics.

Every day we rely on products and services to help us manage and enjoy our lives. The companies who supply those products and services have a responsibility to ensure those products are safe for consumers. When these companies fail to ensure the safety of their products or conceal the potential dangers of their products, our legal partners at Lawsuit Tracker help consumers seek justice. If you have been harmed by a product or service and are considering taking legal action, our attorneys are ready to fight for you.

Our Active Lawsuits

At Lawsuit Tracker, we report on defective products that harm consumers and the associated product liability lawsuits that follow. When people are unexpectedly harmed by a product or service, our legal partners can help them navigate the legal system. If you used one of the products listed below, our legal partners can represent you in a lawsuit and fight for compensation.

What Sorts of Products and Services Can Be Dangerous to Consumers?

Nearly every product or service we use has the potential to cause harm or malfunction. From kitchen knives, to automobiles, to streaming services, we are presented with potential dangers and inconveniences at every turn. Although some dangers are acceptable and understood, other dangers result from negligent actions by product manufacturers and service providers.

Despite government regulations, many products present unreasonable dangers to the public. When a product or service fails to deliver as promised or presents an unreasonable risk, the companies who make these defective products can and should be held legally liable.

Products and services that can be dangerous to consumers include:

• Foods and beverages
  • Examples: Baby food, baby formula, meat products, produce, bottled beverages, nutritional supplements
• Consumer goods
  • Examples: Cell phones, children’s toys, automobile safety equipment, personal protective equipment, healthy and beauty products, tobacco products
• Consumer services
  • Examples: Social media, health insurance, data security, computer software, internet services

When we pay for products and services, we assume they should be safe, as long as we use them as intended and directed. However, many products and services present unreasonable risks to the American public, and product liability lawsuits are a way to hold businesses accountable.

Why People Sue Product Manufacturers and Service Providers

When people are unexpectedly harmed by a product despite using it as directed, they may pursue a lawsuit against the company that made or provided that product. Most of these lawsuits are not frivolous. Many people experience legitimate physical, financial, and mental injuries due to negligence on behalf of manufacturers and service providers.

Although government agencies such as the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) work to protect consumers, injuries still occur. When someone experiences an injury or loss because of a faulty product, those people can sue the parties that harmed them. 

People file lawsuits against product manufacturers and service providers for the following reasons:

• The design of the product proved to be defective
• The service provided was not delivered as guaranteed or represented
• The product was designed properly, but an error occurred during the manufacturing process
• The product’s warning label did not properly warn people of dangers
• The product’s warning label did not contain adequate directions for proper usage
• The product information or disclosures did not adequately warn consumers of potential harm
• The product’s ingredients were not properly represented or were misleading
• The company providing the product or service made false or misleading claims about the benefits or outcomes

Any of these situations can result in harm to consumers. Whether that harm is a physical injury or a financial loss, the losses are real. The people affected should be able to fight for compensation.

How Are People Harmed by Government-Regulated Products and Services?

A lot of consumers think that if they can buy a product or service, then it must be safe. Although there are government agencies that work to protect consumers, oversight and regulations cannot protect consumers from all possible harms. There are many reasons injuries still occur. In some cases, potential harms reveal themselves over time. In other cases, companies work hard to conceal the potential dangers of their products. For example, big tobacco put a lot of effort into downplaying and concealing the harms of cigarettes.

There are many government agencies charged with protecting and informing American consumers. Those U.S. agencies include the Food & Drug Administration (FDA), the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the Bureau of Consumer Protection, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). Each of these agencies has specific responsibilities for protecting the public.

U.S. Food & Drug Administration

The FDA has multiple responsibilities in protecting and informing consumers about the foods and beverages they consume. The FDA oversees things like:

The FDA is also involved in protecting the food supply, mitigating food adulteration from international sources, and overseeing new products and ingredients. All of these actions help protect consumers, but defective products still make it to the market and are consumed by people.

Consumer Product Safety Commission

The CPSC plays a pivotal role in protecting the public from dangerous products. The CPSC creates and enforces standards for consumer products. The CPSC can also ban products if there is no way to protect the public from the dangers of that product. The agency focuses on a number of important public safety issues, such as:

Bureau of Consumer Protection

The Bureau of Consumer Protection is part of the Federal Trade Commission. It is different from the CPSC in that it focuses on unfair, deceptive and fraudulent business practices as opposed to product safety concerns. Some of its largest initiatives are protecting Americans from robocalls, financial fraud and schemes, and phishing schemes.

Federal Communications Commission

The FCC plays a role in protecting consumers from dangerous or unfair services. One of the key issues it tackles is equality in communications infrastructure. When it comes to communications services, the FCC investigates and analyzes complaints from the public and provides consumer information and education.

Do Government Agencies Protect Consumers from Dangerous Products and Services?

Despite the efforts of these agencies and others, many dangerous products and services are available to the American people. No law, agency, or regulation can completely protect consumers from dangerous products. Some businesses put profits before people and endanger the public. When that happens, people file product liability lawsuits to recover damages for their losses and punish the creators of that product.

Product Safety Labeling Requirements

Products and services often come with detailed product instructions and safety disclosures. By providing such information, businesses are trying to protect the consumer and protect themselves from lawsuits. When properly executed and updated, these labels can help protect consumers. 

Products and services consumer by the American public are required to come with associated safety information. Those disclosures come in the form of:

• Ingredients lists
• Device usage and warnings
• Product disclosures

Whether someone buys a package of candy or a power tool, the product labels supply helpful information. However, that information does not always do enough to protect consumers.

Deficiencies of Food and Beverage Product Labels

The FDA requires specific information on each food product. It regulates two aspects of food labeling: the ingredients panel and the nutrition facts label. 

The types of food ingredients must be listed on every food and beverage label. On the label, the ingredients must be listed with the most abundant ingredient first (by weight) and then each subsequent ingredient listed by descending weight. So, if the recipe for a cereal contains more sugar than flour by weight, the sugar has to be listed before the flour.

The food or beverage label is also required to list any FDA-certified color or flavor additives. However, some ingredients can be listed collectively as flavors, spices, artificial flavoring, or artificial colors.

In addition to the ingredients, food and beverage manufacturers are also required to list nutrition information. This is called the nutrition facts label, and the label is required to list the serving size, calories per serving, percentage of daily values for multiple nutrients and vitamins, and the amount of added sugar in a product. 

However, many of the things that pose a danger to consumers are not part of the labeling. Companies may not be testing their products for potential contaminants that may be present in the supply chain or the ingredients. This lack of testing can put consumers at serious risk. This is the case in the baby food lawsuits being filed against baby food manufacturers, such as Gerber.

Deficiencies of Consumer Product Labels

Many products come with safety labels and precautions. Products that are applied to the body have specific requirements that are governed by the FDA. Cosmetics are one of the consumer products that the FDA has specific labeling standards for. The FDA defines a cosmetic product as: “…articles intended to be applied to the human body for cleansing, beautifying, promoting attractiveness, or altering the appearance without affecting the body’s structure or functions.”

Many products fall into this category. Some examples include:

The FDA’s labeling requirements for cosmetic products are strict and intended to properly inform and warn consumers. The label must display a declaration of ingredients that lists each ingredient in descending order, based on its proportion in the product. Additionally, manufacturers must clearly display adequate directions for safe uses and warn of unsafe uses. For example, hair spray comes with a warning to not apply near open flames.

Despite these labeling requirements, many products end up being dangerous to consumers. Some of the dangers of these products may not present themselves until that product has been on the market for many years. This was the case when people started filing lawsuits after developing cancer from hair relaxers.

In such cases, the product label did not warn consumers, and those consumers file product liability lawsuits against manufacturers for not properly disclosing or warning about the dangers of their product.

Deficiencies of Consumer Services Disclosures

Disclosure rules and regulations vary widely by industry and the type of service provided. For example, the financial industry is heavily regulated by multiple agencies throughout the federal government. When it comes to products like social media companies or video game companies, consumers often agree to terms and conditions before they are allowed to use the product. Depending on the terms and conditions, those people may waive their rights to file certain types of litigation. However, these disclosures and terms may not properly warn consumers of all of the associated dangers. Additionally, many of the people who accept those terms are minors.

The designers of these products may choose to design or market their products and services in a way that puts adults and children at harm. Despite accepting terms and conditions, people who use these services did not accept to be harmed at any cost.

This is where product liability lawsuits become an avenue for people to pursue compensation and justice. When companies design and market defective products that cause unreasonable harm to consumers, their disclosures, terms, and conditions do not put them above the law.

Product Liability Lawsuits Can Hold Companies Accountable

If a company who produces a food, good, product, or service does not meet regulatory requirements, that product is typically not allowed to enter the market. However, sometimes a deficiency is discovered after the product comes to market. When that happens, product liability lawsuits help people who were harmed.

For each product a company designs or manufactures, they are required to minimum standards of safety throughout the design, manufacturing, and distribution processes. There are a number of ways companies should be exercising reasonable care when making a product or offering a service. To that end, companies need to meet regulatory requirements during the following phases of the product life cycle:

When a manufacturer does not properly label, warn, or disclose information, it can put people in danger. When people are harmed by a good or service, the company that provides that good or service may face civil lawsuits for the harms their defective products caused.

What Are the Reasons People Sue Product Manufacturers and Service Providers?

People sue product manufacturers and service providers for one, overarching reason—that product or service caused them unreasonable harm. People file product liability lawsuits when companies either purposefully omit or negligently omit the dangers associated with a product. In some cases, a company may be held liable for failing to act quickly enough once a danger with their product was reported or recorded. Whatever the situation, the harm has to be unreasonable or unexpected.

When a product manufacturer is negligent and that negligence results in injuries, people often take legal action. For example, someone may sue a product manufacturer or service supplier for things like negligent actions, product defects, or not properly disclosing the dangers associated with a product. Here are some of the legal allegations cited in lawsuits filed against manufacturers and service providers:

Each of these accusations could be cited in a product liability lawsuit. These allegations each imply that a manufacturer or service provider failed to protect consumers. That failure to protect resulted in harm to the people who used the product.

Types of Lawsuits People File Against Product Manufacturers and Providers

When products or services hurt people or deplete their finances, those people can pursue different types of lawsuits. When it comes to harms caused to individuals by goods and services, those lawsuits are filed in civil courts. When someone files a civil lawsuit, they can file an individual personal injury lawsuit. Depending on the type of service or product that injured that person, they may be able to join a multidistrict litigation (MDL) or a class action lawsuit if either of the options have been created.

Product Manufacturers and Personal Injury Lawsuits

When someone experiences an unreasonable injury or loss after using a product or service, they can file a personal injury lawsuit against the manufacturer or service provider. They can choose to file a singular lawsuit against the entity that harmed them. In this type of lawsuit, the plaintiff and their attorney have to go through the entire legal process on their own. They have to establish the facts of the case and solely litigate a business entity. This type of individual lawsuit is not always preferred when taking on a large, corporate entity. Alternatively, people often choose to join consolidated lawsuits such as multidistrict litigations or class actions.

Product Manufacturers and Mass Torts

When a product or service causes a safety issue or injury, those harms are often experienced by many people. For example, millions of people could use a product or service that misleads consumers about the benefits or dangers of that product or service. 

When many people are harmed by the same product or service and those people are harmed in a similar way, those lawsuits may become a mass tort.

Mass torts are a mechanism to streamline the legal process for the person who filed the lawsuit, the defendant, the attorneys, and the courts.

By creating a mass tort, similar court cases are consolidated into a single legal proceeding. Although the cases are joined together for some phases of the lawsuit, each case is tried on its own merits. That means each person who files a lawsuit as part of a mass tort gets an individual ruling and different compensation.

Product Liability Litigation and Multidistrict Litigation

When a product or service causes a similar harm to many people, those people often file lawsuits. In some instances, those lawsuits are consolidated into something called multidistrict litigation (MDL). In an MDL, cases filed in state courts are consolidated into a single, federal court. Many of the up-front tasks of a trial are handled as a group, but each case is tried on its own merits.

MDLs allow for fact-gathering, expert testimony, evidence admission, and other preliminary lawsuit steps to be handled together, while allowing each plaintiff to present their own case.

MDLs are a good option when people are harmed in a similar way by the same product, but their outcomes are different. For example, two young people who suffered mental health issues from social media addiction may have been harmed by the same platform. However, one person may have experienced depression and another person may have chose to end their life by suicide. In these two examples, these people (and their families) likely deserve different amounts of compensation.

Product Manufacturers and Class Action Lawsuits

Many lawsuits against product manufacturers and service providers end up being consolidated into a class action lawsuit. In a class action, a group of people who were harmed by the same product join a class. That class is represented by a single individual who files a single complaint and tries their case. If that representative wins, everyone who is part of the class gets the same award.

Class action lawsuits are ideal for instances where people are harmed by the same product and experience a very similar harm. For example, thousands of people may sign up for a credit-reporting service, but that service fails to provide the service they described. People who paid for that service may join a class and file a singular lawsuit that requests reimbursement for the service. If they win, they all get reimbursed for the money they paid for the service.

How Our Legal Partners Can Help People Harmed by Dangerous Products and Services

Navigating the legal nuances surrounding product liability lawsuits is difficult work that requires knowledge and specific experience. Our team of legal partners focuses on people who are harmed by consumer products. We understand product liability law and have experience with holding giant corporations and entities accountable.

If you were harmed by a product or service and want to pursue legal action,, our team can help you by:

• Determining your eligibility to file a lawsuit
• Representing you throughout the legal process
• Gathering evidence to present in your case
• Determining the best type of lawsuit to file given your circumstances
• Filing a case on behalf of a minor or a loved one who has passed away

Our team of attorneys and support staff can help you and your family regain some emotional and financial stability. We will fight to get you the compensation you deserve. Our legal partners have a wealth of experience in mass torts, and we take our job of helping you very seriously. 

Attorneys for People Harmed by Dangerous Products and Services

If you or a loved one have been harmed by a defective product or service and you want to learn more about your legal options, contact our team. We can help you understand your eligibility and options. If you decide to move forward with filing a claim, our team of experienced product liability attorneys is ready to fight for you.