Product Liability

Louisiana Product Liability Lawyers

Summary

• Defective and dangerous products can cause minor to catastrophic personal injuries.
• A product liability lawsuit may be filed against the manufacturer, distributor, and/or seller of defective and dangerous products.
• A product liability lawsuit may be filed if you’re injured by a product and there was a manufacturing or design defect, a failure to warn consumers of risks, or it was misrepresented.

Why Hire HKGC for Your Product Liability Lawsuit

The public is exposed to countless dangerous and defective products every day. And in many cases, a mistake was made, warnings were ignored, something went wrong, or someone acted negligently, whether during product design, manufacturing, or marketing. When this happens, a product liability lawsuit is the best way to get justice and compensation for the physical, emotional, and financial impact of the harm you’ve endured.  

The different types of Louisiana product liability laws are complicated and have strict requirements that, if handled alone, greatly affect the outcome of claims. Hiring an attorney with extensive experience and proven success with dangerous and defective product lawsuits is crucial.

The Louisiana product liability attorneys at Herman, Katz, Gisleson & Cain have recovered billions of dollars against manufacturers who marketed and sold dangerous, defective, and harmful products. We’ll alleviate some of the burden of your injury or illness and protect your rights so you can focus on what’s most important: your health and family. When you hire HKGC for your claim, you’ll get a firm recognized as one of the best product liability firms in the country.

Understanding Louisiana Dangerous Product Claims

Being hurt or getting sick after using a product doesn’t automatically mean another party is responsible. It must be shown to be dangerous or defective based on certain factors. These include a design defect, manufacturing defect, marketing defect, or breach of warranty.

If a product was designed in a way that it could injure, was built with a flaw, or labeled without proper warnings or instructions for use, or doesn’t work how a company promised, it can be dangerous or defective for consumers. A product liability lawsuit may be filed if someone is hurt because of one of these scenarios.

Unfortunately, common household items cause injuries, illnesses, and deaths each year, and in many cases, they could have been avoided. With decades of experience handling product liability lawsuits, the attorneys at HKGC fight for our clients’ rights to ensure they get the compensation they deserve.

Our experienced product liability lawyers have taken on Big Tobacco and pharmaceutical companies and won. We’ve taken on all kinds of manufacturers for injuries caused by defective products and devices and have led nationwide efforts on class actions against manufacturers.

Louisiana Product Liability Laws

When a consumer is harmed by a product, there are specific considerations to determine whether someone else is responsible for what happened. Under the Louisiana Products Liability Act (LPLA), manufacturers are liable for products that are “unreasonably dangerous” in the following ways:

• in their construction or composition
• in their design
• if the manufacturer fails to provide sufficient warning of hazards
• if the product does not conform to an express manufacturer warranty

Injuries caused by defective products affect more than just the victim. When a dangerous product causes death or a severe and permanent injury, the victim and their family are impacted; watching a loved one suffer, a loss of income, adjusting to new limitations, and other effects of a personal injury can be life changing.

Proving a manufacturer, distributor, or seller is responsible for harm caused by a product requires a deep understanding of the applicable laws. Our firm’s Louisiana product liability attorneys have the skills and experience to file your claim, recover damages you’re entitled to, and hold negligent companies accountable.

Types of Dangerous Product Lawsuits

Dangerous toys can harm children, defective components in an automobile can kill, and respiratory machines built with unsafe materials can cause temporary to permanent health effects. These are just a few products that consumers in Louisiana and across the U.S. have been harmed by when in reality, thousands of defective or dangerous products are in use today.

Several high-profile product liability lawsuits have emerged in recent years, spotlighting the dangers of everyday products that consumers believe to be safe. Now, those who manufactured harmful products, put them on the market, and kept them in the hands of consumers when there were clear risks are being brought to justice.

Below are a few examples of recent defective and dangerous product lawsuits.

Paraquat

Paraquat dichloride is a chemical herbicide widely used in Louisiana by commercial farmers to control weeds and on cotton or soybean farms for the desiccation of crops. It’s highly toxic, and paraquat exposure can cause fatal poisoning when ingested or inhaled. Paraquat poisoning is possible after skin exposure and accidental ingestion as small as one sip can be deadly There is no antidote.

In addition to poisoning, paraquat exposure has other serious health risks such as Parkinson’s disease, lung damage and scarring, lung function, respiratory effects, heart failure, or a disease called “paraquat lung.” The highest health risks are to agricultural workers who apply paraquat, enter treated fields after application, and are exposed to spray drifts. Also at risk are individuals or families living on or near farms.

Paraquat lawsuits are mounting throughout the country by victims injured by the herbicide, many of whom were farm workers diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. In some of these lawsuits, claimants allege that the defendants had knowledge of the dangers of paraquat exposure and knew that it could cause Parkinson’s, but they concealed that information. Others allege that the defendants failed to provide adequate packaging and proper labeling containing warnings about paraquat.

Roundup

Roundup, a widely used glyphosate-based herbicide, has been found to cause cancer. The product, originally produced by Monsanto and now owned by the parent company, Bayer, is broadly distributed for commercial use and to the general public. Its product warning label only includes precautions about its toxicity due to immediate exposure or ingestion.

However, the use of this product has been found to cause non-Hodgkin lymphoma (aka non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma or NHL). Some large-scale businesses nationwide have stopped selling the product, but it’s still frequently used.

Now, Roundup weed killer is at the center of thousands of Roundup lawsuits in the United States. Juries have found that Monsanto misled and endangered the public. Many people filing Roundup lawsuits have had jobs where they used this carcinogenic product extensively, while others used the herbicide on their personal property for many years. Through this repeated exposure, they’ve developed NHL, a type of cancer that affects the lymph nodes in the body, causing debilitating health problems and, sometimes, death.

Baby Formula

New parents often give their babies formula, but it’s common for hospitals to feed premature babies in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) to speed up growth and development. However, research has shown that baby formulas made with cow milk are connected to necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), a disease premature infants are more likely to develop. NEC causes infection and inflammation due to bacteria that invade the walls of the intestines. It decreases oxygen to certain organs and can damage or destroy a baby’s bowel. Many babies who develop NEC from cow milk-based formula require surgery, and in some cases, NEC is fatal.

In the past, medical malpractice lawsuits were filed against doctors who provided cow milk-based products to premature infants who developed necrotizing enterocolitis. But physicians often claimed that they were not aware of the medical risks.

NEC baby formula lawsuits have emerged throughout the U.S. because of the well-known connection between NEC and cow-based baby formula. Major baby formula manufacturers, including Similac and Enfamil, are facing widespread lawsuits that claim the companies know about the dangers and failed to warn the public about the risks of developing NEC from some of the formulas they make.

For more information on how to file a dangerous or defective product lawsuit, contact HKGC online or call 1-844-943-7627 today.