Defective Products Lawyer in St. Clair County, MO.

Defective Products Lawyer in St. Clair County, MO. If you or a family member was hurt by a dangerous product, reach out to a Burger law defective products lawyer in St. Clair County, MO right away at (314) 500-HURT or fill out our online form for a free consultation.

Imagine what you do every day: You may make coffee in a coffee maker in the morning, take allergy medication, go to school or work on a bus, sit at in a chair or work around heavy machinery, and/or use your cell phone at various times during the day. You may go 4-wheeling on your free days. You may even have a ankle replacement or other medical implant. It seems we're always using or surrounded by some sort of product that has gone through various stages of design and production before it reaches the market. When there is an oversight in that process and a product becomes dangerous, it can have a devastating impact on on your life and lives of those you love in St. Clair County, MO. If tragedy struck you, you need the accomplished and dedicated legal services of Burger Law's defective products lawyer team to stand in your corner and deliver you the maximum compensation you deserve.

In our In our three decades of experience fighting for fairness and justice, we have won our clients in St. Clair County and beyond more than $170 million. Talking to us is free, so there's no risk in having us look over your claim. Get in touch with a defective products lawyer in St. Clair County, MO right away at (314) 500-HURT.

If you were harmed by a defective product in St. Clair County, MO, discover the true value of your claim by utilizing our complimentary personal injury calculator.



Below are some useful links and FAQS from your Burger Law defective products injury lawyer in St. Clair County, MO:

• FDA Recall List and Safety Alerts
• Consumer Products Safety Commission Recall List
• U.S. Department of Transportation Motor Vehicle Recall List
• Recalls.Gov
• What to Do if You're Injured by a Dangerous Product?
• Can I Sue a Company if Their Product Gave Me Cancer?
• Can I Sue for a Defective Car Part if it Caused My Accident?

How Common Are Defective Products in St. Clair County, MO?

The Consumer Product Safety Commission states that faulty products are responsible for over 29 million injuries and 21,000 fatalities every year.

According to data from the Insurance Information Institute, in 2019 the mean average that people injured by faulty products recovered was over $7 million in product liability cases that went to trial, while the median was $2 million. That shows the unbelievable devastation an unsafe product can cause.

If you or someone you know was hurt by a faulty product, call a Burger Law defective products lawyer in St. Clair County, MO for passionate, dedicated and experienced support and legal counsel.

How Defective Products Claims Work in St. Clair County, MO

Under Missouri Revised Statute §537.760, you and your St. Clair County, MO defective products lawyer can file a "strict liability" suit if three factors are met:

1. The corporation was part of the product's design, manufacture, distribution and sale.
2. The product was used in a manner logically anticipated.
3. One or both of the following:
   1. The product was in a defective condition that was unreasonably dangerous when the product was sold that caused you direct harm, and/or
   2. The manufacturer or distributor failed to warn on the products packaging of an inherently hazardous condition.

The "chain of distribution" refers to anyone involved in the product from initial design to purchase, including the person or entity you bought the product from. According to Missouri Revised Statute §5537.762, an entity whose sole connection to the case is that they were the vendor or distributor of the product may avoid liability if:

• The manufacturer is known, still does business and is financially capable of compensating you for all of your injuries.
• The vendor makes an affidavit under threat of perjury that they had nothing to do with the product beyond selling it.
• No other party in the case submits evidence that the distributor was involved in any other part of the chain of distribution.
• The dismissal is requested to the court no later than 60 days after the complaint is filed.

If the aforementioned conditions are fulfilled, the distributor would then be dismissed without prejudice, meaning they are not permanently dismissed from the case. So, if later evidence demonstrates that they had a larger role in the design and manufacture of the product than they intimated, were otherwise at fault for the dangerous condition or the manufacturer cannot pay for the entirety of the economic, physical and emotional hardships you sustained, your defective products lawyer at Burger Law would have them re-entered into the claim and ensure you get the great compensation that they owe you.

Missouri Revised Statute §537.764 mentions a caveat for "state of the art products," meaning that a hazardous aspect of the product was not known and could not be discovered when the product was introduced to the public. This defense is only applicable to for inadequate warning product liability lawsuits, and it is up to the defense to prove that there is no way they could have known about the hazardous condition.

Strict Liability and Negligence in Defective Products Claims: What's the Difference?

The majority of personal injury lawsuits in St. Clair County, MO are decided by the notion of negligence. We all have a civil duty to not carelessly cause harm to other people in certain situations; for example, property owners and managers must make sure their premises is reasonably safe so no one sustains a slip and fall. When someone is negligent, for instance if you sustain a dog bite are because a dog owner didn't properly leash their dog they may be held liable for your damages and would be obligated to reimburse you for your injuries and other damages.

By contrast, most product liability or dangerous products cases are strict liability claims, meaning that anyone in the chain of distribution is accountable for any injuries a product causes, whether they were negligent or not. According to jury instruction revisions made by the Missouri Supreme Court, defendant's in a product liability case may be held to the strict liability standard if you and your St. Clair County, MO defective products lawyer can demonstrate that the product was "unreasonably dangerous" — meaning it is unsafe when used as intended or in a foreseeable way — at the moment that it got into your hands.

Missouri classifies three different ways in which your defective products lawyer can argue a product was dangerous:

1. Design Defect: A design defect is an innate defect in the design that subsequently affects all of that product model that go on to be manufactured. An example is an electrical appliance that can overheat and cause fires.
2. Manufacturing Defects: This refers to a product that was safe in its design but became unsafe because of a failure in the manufacturing process. This can either affect only one product, i.e. a single vehicle, or several or all of them, as in an entire line of the same model vehicle. An example could be incorrectly installing wires or electrical components or leaving sharp edges on plastic or other materials.
3. Failure to Warn of Known Risks or Risks That Should Have Been Foreseen: This refers to a product made it through design and production safely but caused injury because it did not give adequate instructions or warnings about inherent dangers. Examples include a drug that is sold without mentioning certain risks or side effects or cleaning solutions that do not mention corrosive chemicals they contain on the label. The company that makes a product typically does not have to warn against dangers that a reasonable person would anticipate. For instance, they do not have to warn you that a chainsaw can cut you.

Strict liability is meant to incentivize corporations to implement thorough safety protocols for verifying the safety of their products. However, too often companies are negligent and try to focus more on their bottoms line than ensuring their products will not injure anyone. In those cases, your Burger Law defective products lawyer in St. Clair County, MO will fight by your side and insist on only a complete financial recovery.

Comparative Negligence in Defective Productions Claims in St. Clair County, MO

Manufacturers, vendors and anyone else in the stream of commerce will often rely on the theory of comparative negligence when building their defense. Missouri Revised Statute §537.765 permits for those in the chain of distribution to argue that you are responsible for a portion of your damages and, therefore, they are not liable for your full financial recovery. For example, if a jury determines that you have $100,000 in damages but finds you were 30 percent to blame for the accident, you will only receive $70,000. Often, comparative negligence arguments are a disingenuous attempt a manufacturer makes to get out their obligation to pay you for the damage their product did to you. Your St. Clair County, MO defective products lawyer at Burger Law sees through that. The statute allows for the defense of comparative negligence if the following situations apply:

• You did not use the product in a manner the manufacturer could foresee. A manufacturer or seller is only responsible for ensuring the product is safe for reasonable or predictable use. For example, certain creams or lotions are not intended to be used on your face, but many people will use them there anyway. If the product could hurt your eyes if rubbed on your face, the manufacturer needs to provide instructions specifically not to apply it to your face. On the other hand, if you put wheels on a chair and are injured racing it down the street, you likely do not have a claim because the manufacture would not be expected to foresee that happening.
• You used the product in a way that was clearly against the manufacturer's intent. With this defense, Someone in the stream of commerce will not be able to entirely avoid fault but can significantly reduce it. Say you combine a certain medication with alcohol, producing negative side-effects or leading you to cause a car wreck. A pharmaceutical company could reasonably see someone doing that, but will not be completely responsible because you were being reckless.
• You knew of inherent hazards of the product while you were using it. This is often called as "Assumption of the risk," a concept in tort claims whereby, if a plaintiff knowingly enters into a dangerous activity, the defendant is not responsible. For instance, you understand that using a sharp kitchen knife can cut you if you are not extremely careful.
• You displayed an unreasonable failure to appreciate the danger that a product's specific use could cause. For example, you were injured while snowmobiling at high speeds in a blizzard on icy surfaces. The defense could say that any reasonable person would have known that they could be seriously injured doing such a thing.
• You failed to take necessary safety precautions. Certain products come with safety instructions that the user has an obligation to follow to protect themselves. If you were injured in a car accident because of faulty brakes, but you were not wearing your seatbelt, the defense can argue your injuries are your fault because you had not followed proper protocols.
• You failed to mitigate your damages. In any personal injury claim, you are expected to try to lessen the amount of compensation you are owed. For example, you cannot seek unnecessary medical treatment. The defense may say they do not owe you for a portion of your damages because they are unnecessary or not relevant to the case.

Just because the defense can — and will — assert that comparative fault applies to your case, that does not mean the claim is automatically true. Large corporations and insurance companies implement numerous deceitful tactics to try and minimize your claim, but your St. Clair County, MO defective products lawyer at Burger Law knows how to effectively counterattack. We know these companies will try everything to avoid paying you and try to take advantage of people unfamiliar with Missouri laws. All you will ever owe is a contingency fee, which means we collect a moderate percentage of the financial recovery you collect, and you do not pay us anything until we win your case. Reach out to Burger Law now at (314) 500-HURT for legal representation that rivals and eclipses that of bullying manufacturers and distributors and insurance companies.

Defective Vehicle Parts Lawyer in St. Clair County, MO

Defective vehicles are the most common type of product liability that our defective products lawyer team sees in St. Clair County, MO. In 2019 alone, over 53.1 million individual cars and vehicle components were recalled in the United States. Defective car parts can cause wrecks and fires, and lead to further injuries when the safety components to not work as they should. Common faulty car components we see are:

• Brakes
• Airbags
• Ignitions
• Windshield wipers
• Wheels
• Seats
• Headlights and taillights

Offroad vehicles like ATVs can also cause injuries, for instance many of them are prone to flipping over.

Your Burger Law defective products lawyer has extensive experience investigating car accident claims and injuries and will consult with experts to determine if your accident was the fault of a faulty vehicle component.

Defective Medical Devices Lawyer in St. Clair County, MO

We need medical devices to enhance and extend our lives. But, sometimes they actually do the opposite and make our lives worse when they are defective. Common medical devices that your Burger Law defective products lawyer in St. Clair County, MO has seen cause further complications for patients include:

• Artificial joints that can lead to infections, limited mobility, pain or frequent dislocations
• Pacemakers, which can result in infections or even wrongful death because of premature failures
• Robotic surgical assistants intended to operate on hard to reach areas which, when they do not work properly, can cause pierced organs, infections and internal burns
• Blood clot filters that allow free-floating blood clots to slip into the lungs
• Permanent birth control devices that can perforate organs, lead to pain in the pelvic region, abnormal hemorrhaging and unplanned pregnancies

As the medical industry becomes more high-tech, medical device recalls have increased exponentially. In the first quarter of 2018, medical device recalls increased 126 percent, with software issues being the chief cause.

In 2017, the U.S. Health and Human Services Department found that in the course of 10 years Medicare had to spend at least $1.5 billion to replace over 73,000 defective cardiovascular devices alone. Medical devices should help mitigate pain and extend our lifespans, not cause further damage. If a defective medical device caused you damages, your St. Clair County, MO defective injuries lawyer at Burger Law will hold the liable parties accountable and make sure you get a full financial recovery for all of the unnecessary pain you experienced.

In February of this year, Exactech, a manufacturer of joint replacements, issued an Exactech Polyethylene Knee Replacement Recall. Their knee replacements were negligently packaged and shipped, causing them to do not last nearly as long as they were built to and have caused unthinkable pain and lifelong damage to possibly as many as 150,000 patients who had received the replacement joint. When Burger Law was retained by a client, we immediately filed suit on their behalf and continue to take on Exactech Knee Replacement cases. You can read our original complaint by clicking the link below:

View Complaint

Defective Drug Lawyer in St. Clair County, MO

The Federal Drug Administration has stringent procedures for the testing, labeling, packaging and shipping of prescription drugs. However, the administration uses data from the pharmaceutical companies themselves when deciding whether or not to allow the drug to hit the shelves. That means that many drugs reach the market whose potential side effects greatly outweigh their potential benefits. Too many pharmaceutical companies care more about the money they make more than the safety of the people they are supposed to be helping. Currently, it is usually the pharmaceutical company's decision if they will recall a drug that has found to have dangerous side effects. One way to make sure dangerous prescriptions stay off the shelves: call a Burger Law defective products lawyer in St. Clair County, MO to stand up to these bullying corporations and let them know that their behavior is intolerable.

Four thousand five hundred prescriptions and medical devices are taken off the national market annually, and many of them have already been widely ingested and used. If you or a loved one had your condition worsen because of careless pharmaceutical companies and corporations, contact a Burger Law defective products injury lawyer as soon as possible. We fight hard to see justice served by securing you compensation and holding negligent corporations accountable. Burger Law has already successfully won claims for families against opioid manufacturers so they can have some sense of justice for the wrongful death of their loved one.

Other common defective products we collect compensation for our clients for in St. Clair County, MO include:

• Children's toys
• Chemicals such as week killer
• Baby powder
• Household appliances
• Industrial equipment
• Cell phone batteries
• Cosmetic products

Every Burger Law defective products lawyer in St. Clair County, MO knows that being hurt by a dangerous product can completely upend your daily routine, your family and even your present and future financial security. That is why we endeavor to see the injured in St. Clair County and throughout Missouri be compensated for all of their damages, not just what the product manufacturer or insurance company feel like reimbursing you for. When you hire us, we immediately start working on delivering you a financial recovery for all of your medical costs and lost wages, in addition to the mental and physical toll your injury has inflicted on you and your St. Clair County, MO family. You do not have to go through this alone, and the big corporations do not have to win every time. Call a Burger Law defective products lawyer in St. Clair County, MO now at (314) 500-HURT or contact us online to take the first step toward true healing.