Product Liability
The attorneys of Sobel Pevzner, LLC. have extensive experience and knowledge in the area of Product Liability. The firm and its attorneys have a wide range of experience defending product manufacturers, distributors and retailers against a wide variety of product liability claims involving personal injury and property damage. Defense verdicts and dispositive motions have been delivered in cases arising out of foreign and domestically made sporting goods, tools, ladders, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, buses, amusement rides to name a few.
Throughout its tenure, the firm has successfully defended every type of company positioned in the stream of commerce including food manufacturers and restaurants against claims of food borne illness and injuries caused by foreign objects, manufacturers and retailers of medical devices, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics, sporting goods, recreational products, automobiles, home appliances, electrical equipment, and industrial equipment including allegations relative to defects in manufacture, design, failure to warn and breach of warranty.
The firm’s attorneys are known for their legal, technical, trial and settlement expertise and have prevailed at every stage of litigation including motions to dismiss the pleadings, summary judgment, trial and appeal. We keep abreast of the ever developing changes in the law, medico-legal literature, and technology. The firm prides itself in keeping up with the latest theories of liability put forth by the plaintiff’s bar in the area of products liability. Working closely with our experts and client representatives, we develop a defense strategy early in litigation so that the firm’s client resources and legal spend can be put to maximum benefit.
The firm’s attorneys work closely with our clients to understand their products, counsel them in regard to recall and the costs associated with same, develop and enforce vendor agreements and insurance contracts, and by doing so, become an invaluable partner in their complex field of product liability. Often, the firm is counsel to an innocent retailer which made no modifications, added no warnings, nor modified the product it sold in any way. A prompt tender of our retail client’s defense upstream to the distributor and manufacturer as well as the enforcement of vendor agreements and additional insured status has resulted in countless file closings with minimal legal spend and no payment on the indemnity side.
A thorough understanding of jurisdictional issues, joint and several liability and other substantive laws, as well as the proper application of venue selection all play a role in the defense of the firm’s products liability client. While early resolution is an option often recommended by the firm and its client, where a frivolous claim attacks the efficacy of a client’s product design or manufacture, quality of its product, or suitability of its machine or tool for distribution to the public, the firm has a proven track record of successfully taking cases to trial or preparing a case so that the court will dispose of such a case on motion. In representing national and regional retailers, distributors, manufactures in the defense of products liability cases, the firm is always aware that a decision in one state can have a significant effect on cases in other states. Therefore, the “macro” view of a client’s true risk is always considered in regard to litigation including discovery issues and the ultimate strategy of case disposition when a product is widely distributed.