Product Liability
Products made for children are held to the highest expectation of all
Parents follow the instructions on the box. When a nursery product, toy or car seat still injures a child, the design or the warning was the problem.
About dangerous children’s products claims
Children’s products are designed for users who cannot recognize a hazard, cannot read a warning and cannot escape a dangerous situation. That reality is central to the design-defect analysis: what an ordinary consumer expects of a sleep product or a toy is that it will not harm a child during normal, foreseeable use, including the mistakes real parents predictably make.
The products we investigate include inclined sleepers and loungers associated with positional asphyxia, cribs and bassinets with entrapment or drop-side hazards, car seats that fail in a crash or have defective harnesses, strollers and carriers with collapse or latch failures, high chairs and play yards that tip, toys with small parts, high-powered magnets or button batteries, and window blind cords and furniture that create strangulation and tip-over risks.
Recalls of children’s products are common, and Consumer Product Safety Commission records, incident reports and prior lawsuits often show a manufacturer received warnings long before the product was pulled. That history is powerful evidence about what the company knew.
Common injuries
Injuries we see most often in these cases. Every claim is different, and this list is not exhaustive.
- Asphyxiation and suffocation in sleep and nursery products
- Traumatic brain injury from falls, collapses and tip-overs
- Internal burns and esophageal injury from swallowed button batteries
- Intestinal perforation from ingested high-powered magnets
- Strangulation injuries from cords, straps and harnesses
- Fractures, lacerations and choking injuries
Who can be held liable
Responsibility often extends well beyond the most obvious company. We look at every party in the chain.
- The manufacturer that designed and tested the product
- The brand or importer responsible for the United States market
- The retailer or marketplace that sold the item
- A component supplier responsible for a latch, harness or battery compartment
- A resale or rental business that supplied a recalled product
Evidence that matters
What we work to preserve and obtain early, because this proof tends to disappear with time.
- The product, all packaging, instructions, labels and model or lot numbers
- Consumer Product Safety Commission recall and incident report history
- Medical records and, where applicable, coroner or autopsy findings
- Photographs of the product exactly as it was set up and used
- Prior complaints, similar incident reports and internal safety testing
Do not wait on the deadline
California generally allows two years to bring a personal injury or product liability claim under Code of Civil Procedure § 335.1, and two years from the date of death in a wrongful death case. Shorter deadlines apply when a government entity is involved, and deadlines can be extended for injured children. Exceptions are fact-specific. Talk to us before you assume anything about your own timeline.
Answers
Dangerous Children’s Products: common questions
Injured by children’s products? Let us review it at no cost.
A conversation costs you nothing and there is no obligation. No fee unless we recover compensation for you. In some matters a client may still be responsible for case costs and expenses, and we will explain exactly how that works before you decide to hire us.