De-Bunking Some Myths About Defective Products Lawsuits Under NY Law

Over the last several years, I’ve been struck by the terrible misconceptions that the public has about products liability cases. Some of the better-known products cases involved recalls of children’s toys, cars, asbestos, leak-prone silicone breast implants and tobacco. With respect to many, if not all, of these examples, people tend to have very strong feelings and beliefs, whether out of concern for children’s safety, or because of the illness or death of a loved one secondary to cancer or asbestosis.

 

Myth #1: If Someone is Seriously Injured by a Product, He is Automatically Entitled to Recover Damages.

As a result, I have also found that people tend to believe that if they or a loved one has been seriously injured by a product, the product must inherently be defective, and the injured parties should automatically be entitled to recover damages for their injuries.This notion is pure fantasy.

Myth #2: Trial Lawyers Have Brought a Disproportionately High Share of Products Liability Suits Relative to the Number of Defective Products on the Market

Despite the nearly 220,000 toy-related injuries that required treatment at a hospital emergency room in 2007 (that does not even begin to account for injuries related to children’s nursery equipment, sports and recreational equipment, personal use items, household products, home furnishings or fixtures, nor does it account for presumably less serious injuries that did not result in hospitalization) only a small fraction of these incidents resulted in the filing of a products liability lawsuit. For more on these topics, please download our Free eBook on defective products and lawsuits, "Why There Are So Few Defective Produtcts Lawsuits."