West Valley City Product Liability Attorney

Manufacturers across all industries are obligated to test the products they put up for sale. If a manufacturer sells a product that then does harm to its consumer, that manufacturer can be held liable for the injured party’s losses in civil court.

This means that in the face of an injury, you have the right to file a product liability claim against a manufacturer, corporation, or similar institution. You don’t have to do this work alone, either. You can contact 1Law’s product liability lawyers in West Valley City, UT, to open an investigation into your losses.

Understanding Product Liability Cases

Utah addresses product failures through its Product Liability Act, or Utah Code § 78B-6-701. This code states that manufacturers and similar institutions bear liability for accidents resulting from “unreasonably dangerous” product defects. How a party interprets “unreasonably dangerous” depends on the extent of their injuries and the nature of the product in question.

Unfortunately, the phrasing of this act can drive some parties to hesitate before filing a claim. Don’t dismiss your right to a claim without first consulting an attorney, though. Our team can assess the extent of your injuries and make sure you receive the time in court you deserve.

Utah’s Product Liability Statute of Limitations: Act Soon to Bring Your Case to Court

Utah Code § 78B-6-706 states that you, or any party injured by a failed product, have two years to bring your losses before a civil judge. This deadline is meant to keep older accidents from delaying more pressing court cases. However, it also means that you have to contact an attorney as soon as you can after an accident.

If you don’t think that you can submit a complaint within the deadline set by the state, let an attorney know. Our office can work to bring together information regarding your losses, liability, and your desired compensation. 

All the while, you can focus on recovering and/or going back to work. A product liability lawyer in West Valley City can keep you updated on case developments as they come in.

How to Hold a Manufacturer Responsible for Your Accident

There are several stages at which a product can suffer from a dangerous failure. Some corporations design their products without accounting for how those products may practically work. Others may fail to assess their products during the manufacturing process. Still others may falsely advertise their products.

You can take legal action against an institution for product failures that occur at any stage in a product’s creation or sale. It gets easier to do this when you have evidence of that failure on hand. Our team can investigate the scene of your accident for you and help draft a story explaining how a product did you harm.

You can then present this information to a county clerk in what is known as a civil complaint.

Requesting Compensation in Product Liability Cases

Civil complaints do more than establish liability in your product liability case. You can also use a complaint to request compensation for your losses. If a court moves your case forward, you can argue for your right to financial support in two ways. You can begin a case in court or negotiate on your own time.

Your request for product liability compensation can include coverage of economic and non-economic losses. Of these, your economic losses are the most versatile. No two people will often share the same economic losses after a product liability accident. Instead, these losses tend to fall into the following categories:

• Medical concerns
• Property damage
• Lost opportunities for work or wages

If a loved one passed on due to a product’s failure, you can also include the cost of their funeral expenses in your request.

It’s the responsibility of a product liability lawyer in West Valley City, UT, to add these costs together and present them as your total request for compensation. Moreover, we can add non-economic multipliers to increase your possible support. These multipliers can account for losses like pain and suffering and/or emotional damages.

Product Liability Complaints Can Give You Legal Options

When you file a product liability complaint, you give yourself the opportunity to pursue a few different courses of action. If you’d prefer to pursue compensation without going to court, you can summon the party named in your complaint to out-of-court negotiations. In many cases, a manufacturer may attempt to meet with you before your complaint makes it through court.

These negotiations allow you more control over the settlement to which you may be entitled. Product liability negotiations also tend to resolve in less time than traditional civil trials. That said, it’s easy to feel intimidated by a manufacturer’s legal team, particularly if you’ve never taken this kind of action before.

Product Liability Trials

If you find a manufacturer reluctant in negotiations, you can instead request that our attorneys pursue a civil trial on your behalf. Alternatively, you can skip negotiations entirely. When you take a product liability case to trial, you must prove to a judge and jury that:

• The manufacturer owed you a duty of care
• The manufacturer failed to account for its product’s functionality before selling it to you
• This failure directly resulted in your injuries
• Your injuries have concentrated economic value

These trials can last months to years at a time. However, they may also entitle you to punitive damages, depending on the severity of your accident. We can also keep the door open for negotiations throughout this process. This way, we ensure that you have every opportunity to secure the compensation you need to recover.

Let’s Hold Manufacturers Accountable for Your Losses

Product liability cases allow you to bring your injuries, property damage, and other losses to civil court for a judge’s consideration. A product liability attorney in West Valley City can help you present your case without facing undue pressure from a manufacturer trying to avoid legal consequences of their negligence.

For more information about what your product liability case may entail, you can contact 1Law over the phone or through our website. If you think you may have a product liability case on your hands, our team members can work to establish your losses while backing your assertion of liability.