The Milwaukee Product Liability Law Offices of Laufenberg & Hoefle, SC represent Wisconsin victims injured by faulty and defective equipment and products. Serious injuries can result from poorly manufactured products and equipment, including traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, paralysis and dismemberment. Having experienced and aggressive products liability attorneys on your side is essential to obtaining just financial recovery for an injury caused by a defective product. If you’ve been injured, Laufenberg & Hoefle can help you today.

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Products Liability

Defective Products Law in the News

2006 has been a year of large scale recalls. Manufacturing and agricultural errors have caused products to be placed on the market that were literally putting lives at risk.

 

Sony Laptop Batteries: Sony said last week that about 9.6 million lithium-ion batteries, manufactured between August 2003 through February this year, are being recalled worldwide after reports of some computers using the Sony battery packs overheating and bursting into flames.

 

Tainted Spinach: Federal food safety agents recalled bagged spinach traced to a batch processed at the San Juan Bautista plant of Natural Selection Foods LLC, which packages spinach under 34 brand names including Dole, the brand eaten by many of the sickened people. Test results found the same strain of the deadly E. coli bacteria in cow manure at a cattle ranch near a Salinas Valley spinach farm earlier this month, but it's still unclear how the pathogen traveled to the plants.

 

Acetaminophen Recall:The recall affects 11 million bottles containing varying quantities of 500-milligram acetaminophen caplets made by the Perrigo Co. The pills were sold under store brands by Wal-Mart, CVS, Safeway and more than 120 other major retailers, the Food and Drug Administration said. At least two chains -- CVS Corp. and SuperValu Inc. -- started pulling the pills from store shelves.

 

New products liability legislation threatens safety, legal protections of Wisconsin consumers

Manufacturers of all products are responsible for alerting and warning consumers about dangers related to their products, and also ensuring that before making an item available for sale, the item is produced to prevent injury-causing failures or breakdowns during normal use of the product. If manufacturers fail to do this and an injury or death results, then they can be held liable for damages under Wisconsin’s product liability laws. Serious injuries can result from poorly manufactured products and equipment, including traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, paralysis and dismemberment.

 

But like the rights of medical malpractice victims, the rights of injured product liability victims are facing serious challenges today. Year after year, large manufacturers in Wisconsin and across the nation have lobbied for looser laws and regulations that will give them a decisive legal advantage over consumers in many product liability cases. The latest products liability law passed by the Wisconsin legislature, AB 317, would severely cripple the rights of injured consumers. Proponents of AB 317, like State Senator Robert Welch and Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, claim that reforming product liability laws will enhance industry competition and unleash job creation. While those claims are arguable at best, what is obvious is that passage of AB 317 has given virtual immunity to irresponsible manufacturers in cases where their negligence is clear. Below are a few of the major changes AB 317 now institutes in product liability cases:

  • Remove most liability of distributors or sellers of the faulty product.
  • Prohibit a lawsuit if a feature of the product is “inherently” and “obviously” dangerous to the user.
  • Presume the product is safe if it meets federal or state standards.
  • If the user is intoxicated at the time of an accident, the manufacturer can make a "rebuttable presumption" that the alcohol or drugs caused the injury.
  • Manufacturers of machines causing injury 15 years after the date of sale are granted amnesty from litigation.

Why is there so much pressure for this severe shift in our product liability laws, changes that so clearly favor the interests of Wisconsin manufacturers? After all, out of 256,596 civil legal actions filed in Wisconsin during 2001 there were a grand total of 85 related to product liability, or .0003 percent of the total. Moreover, AB 317’s backers cannot show that any problem exists with Wisconsin product-liability law. The US Chamber of Commerce ranked Wisconsin's court system as 11th "best" in the nation in terms of fairness to business. And even AB 317’s staunchest advocates have testified, "We don't have a crisis.” To the average observer, it appears that corporate Wisconsin is magnifying a microscopic molehill of product-liability cases to justify a mammoth mutilation of Wisconsin citizens' legal rights.

There is a simple reason for the extremely low number of product liability cases in Wisconsin, and it’s because the existing product liability law does what it is supposed to do: protect the people of Wisconsin from careless, negligent and unsafe manufacturing. In today’s profits-first business world, accountability is the consumer’s only true safeguard from defective manufacturing. Only by making the potential legal consequences of products liability too much to bear for manufacturers can we ensure that our safety doesn’t come second to their profit. Passage of AB 317 allows Wisconsin product manufacturers to once again view safety as an afterthought, and not the priority it is. Sadly, we will now see a dramatic rise in the number of product liability injuries, and a dwindling number of legal options at hand for injured product liability victims.

One Product Liability Injury is One Too Many

An average of 85 product liability cases each year is a low figure, but at  Laufenberg & Hoefle, SC, we believe even one severe injury resulting from faulty or defective equipment or products is one too many. Through 20 years of legal service in Wisconsin, we’ve helped those injured by farm equipment, construction equipment and other heavy equipment, household tools and appliances, yard equipment, sports equipment and sporting goods, defective helmets, defective vehicles and the many other products that become deadly when carelessly produced and manufactured.

We’ve also seen the devastating, catastrophic injuries that can result from defective products -- including dismemberment, paralysis, traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord injuries. Led by products liability attorneys with uncommon experience investigating the many minute details involved in successfully prosecuting a product liability case, we devote all the resources of our office to helping our product liability clients obtain the financial means to make an aggressive and focused recovery from their injuries. For those who have suffered life-changing injuries, permanent disability or the wrongful death of a loved one from a products liability accident, we’ve helped them obtain financial stability and compensation for their loss.

In every products liability case, we recognize that we are working not only for our clients, but for thousands of consumers like them exposed to the same dangers that caused their injuries. Forcing manufacturers to enforce the safety measures that govern their business can only be accomplished by reminding manufacturers that they aren’t above the law.

If you’ve been injured by a defective product, contact Laufenberg & Hoefle today for a free review of your case to determine whether you are eligible for compensation.

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