I was recently in federal court involving a products liability case. The Judge, during the preceedings, inquired regarding whether or not I actually had the defective product either safeguarded or in my possession. I advised him that I had never pursued a products case when I did not have either possession or access to the actual product that caused injury to my client. He advised me that unfortunately, many other attorneys handling these types of cases could not make the same assurances. The Judge lamented about the number of products cases brought before him where the claimant’s attorney did not preserve the defective product for inspection or production during pre-trial evalutions or at the trial itself.
 
It is critical that when a person suffers a serious injury from a product that was either defective in the way it was manufactured or designed that it is preserved. There are many times that a product fails apparently due to a design flaw actually also failed from a manufacturing defect. That can be an important distinction when the defendant manufacturer claims that they have sold over million of the identical products without any reported defect inflicting injury. There may be times when the product itself is destroyed due to the malfunction which results in inflicting serious injuries. However, it’s criitcal that the remnants from the product, be collected and preserved. Photographs are not enough. They can be important but are no substitute for the product itself, or what’s left of it, after an injury occurs.
 
In some of the products cases I’ve handled, I have had to scour wrecking yards for the remnants of defective vehicles to retrieve them before they were disposed of or recycled in order to have the necessary expert evaluations that can be made by comparing the defective vehicles with exemplars. The subtly of the actual defect may not be readily apparent until the damaged vehicle is compared to the same year and model of the vehicle in question. This was how a rear seat pan defect for a client who suffered a broken neck was discovered. Measurements and comparisons helped to identify that the rear seat in the damaged vehicle had moved enough, from inadequate welding, to propell the passeger forward during a very low speed rear end collision. Whether it’s a chair that collapses, or a piece of gym equipment that falls apart or becomes dismantled, or any other type of product that malfunctions inflicting serious injury preserving the actual product will often make the difference between successfully pursing this type of case or losing.
 
Photo Credit: Walter Ezell, Flickr