When a New Orleans resident needs a hip or knee replacement, they should have some assurance that the medical device being implanted will not result in further injury, such as what we are seeing with the recent Exactech Knee Recall. These devices are supposed to be rigorously tested for safety and proper functioning before being used. Unfortunately, over the last several years thousands of personal injury lawsuits have been filed for defective and unsafe medical implants that failed to perform as required. As a result, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is proposing changes to the manner in which implants and other medical devices are monitored following their release into the marketplace. However, there have been cases in which a victim of a faulty medical device has filed a defective product lawsuit. In a recently released report entitled “Strengthening our National System for Medical Device Postmarket Surveillance,” the FDA proposes several changes to the…Read More
When a New Orleans resident is injured using a manufactured product, whether he or she can recover any damages is governed by the Louisiana Products Liability Act. To recover under this Act, the injured person must prove that the product was unreasonably dangerous in one of four ways: 1) construction or composition, 2) design, 3) inadequate warning, 4) or failure to conform with an express warranty. When the manufacturer has indicated that a product is safe to use in a certain way and it is not, the injured person may be able to recover damages based on the product failing to comply with an expressed warranty. An express warranty is a verbal or written statement guaranteeing either that the product will work in a certain way or that the product is warranted against defects in materials or workmanship. Under the Louisiana Products Liability Act, a product is unreasonably dangerous based on a failure…Read More
The existence of a safer version of a dangerous product can help when pursuing a lawsuit. When a dangerous product injures someone, there are several different grounds that a New Orleans personal injury attorney may explore in regard to bringing a lawsuit. One of these is whether the product was unreasonably dangerous in its design. When pursuing this claim, Louisiana law sets forth several specific facts that the plaintiff must prove. First, the plaintiff must prove that at the time it was manufactured, there was an alternative design for the product in existence that would have prevented the injury. If the safer design is a newer development, however, it will not support a claim that a product is unreasonably dangerous in its design. A safer version must have existed when the product that caused the injury was manufactured. Second, the plaintiff must prove that the likelihood of the product causing injury…Read More
When a person injured by a dangerous product wants to pursue compensation, one issue most New Orleans personal injury attorneys will examine is any warnings the manufacturer provided regarding the product’s use. If a manufacturer has not provided adequate warning of the potential danger of a product, the product may be found unreasonably dangerous based on this lack of warning. Whether a manufacturer is required to provide a warning depends on the nature of the product. When a manufacturer learns – or with reasonable diligence should have learned – that the product has a dangerous characteristic, there is a general duty to provide a warning of that danger to anyone who uses or handles the product. However, there are exceptions to this rule. No warning is necessary when the user knew – or reasonably could be expected to know –about the product’s dangerous characteristic. A warning also is not required when…Read More
If you suffer a personal injury as the result of a defective product, you may bring a lawsuit to recover damages. Before doing so, however, you should consult with an experienced New Orleans personal injury attorney to determine the merits of your case. Personal injury lawsuits involving defective products are called “product liability” cases. To recover damages in such cases, it is not enough that you were injured while using the product. You also must establish that the product was defective in at least one of four ways: (1) unreasonably dangerous in construction or composition, (2) unreasonably dangerous in design, (3) inadequate warning, or (4) breach of manufacturer’s express warranty. If the defect in the product is present, the injured party is further required to prove that the complained-of defect in the product was the cause of the injury. When a large number of individuals are injured by manufactured products that all display the…Read More
