Articles Tagged with product liability

Defective products are made by manufacturers every single day, but most do not end up causing injury to the consumer. Those that do are subject to litigation, but proving a product is defective can be difficult. Our Atlanta accident injury lawyers have some tips for how you can tell if you have a case against a product manufacturer.
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A Pennsylvania woman died days after she was struck by a power line that fell into her yard. Carrie Goretzka stepped outside to call 911 about the line and was shocked and burned by a live electrical wire that fell from trees. Rescue workers were unable to administer treatment until a utility crew came to cut off the power.

Goretzka’s family filed a lawsuit against the utility company, West Penn Power, and its related companies. It contends the companies are liable for Goretzka’s death because utility workers failed to properly maintain the wires that fell near her home.

The family’s attorney, Shanin Specter, says the power line failed at a point where it was spliced. He says workers using a splice device know to use a wire brush to clean oxides from the wires, otherwise overheating will cause the splice to fail.

Household product recalls in the news recently included:

Martha Stewart’s enamel cast-iron casseroles: Enamel coating can crack or break during use, cutting and burning the consumer. More than 960,000 casseroles sold at Macy’s between June 2007 and June 2011 have been recalled. The product ranges in price from $25 to $170.

What to Do: Stop using this unsafe consumer product and return it to Macy’s for a refund. Call Macy’s at 888-257-5949 or go to www.macys.com for more details.

Teva Parenteral Medicines, Inc., Baxter Healthcare Corp., and McKesson Corp. have been ordered by a jury to pay at least $20.1 million for packaging and selling an anesthetic in a way that proved harmful to patients. The jury concluded that the companies wrongfully sold Propofol in vials large enough to be used on multiple patients. Consequently, three colonoscopy patients contracted Hepatitis C. The plaintiffs sought $25 million in actual damages over the incurable liver disease. Punitive damages have yet to be decided.

Teva faces almost 300 lawsuits stemming from a Hepatitis C outbreak three years ago. The company has argued that the infections were caused by “improperly sanitized medical equipment, not reused Porpofol containers.”

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