Every year, children are fatally strangled or seriously injured by children’s products that have been designed or manufactured in such a way as to pose strangulation hazards to small children who come into contact with these products. Though many of these products are recalled by the manufacturers when such hazards are discovered, others remain on the market and in consumers’ hands, creating serious dangers that would not exist if manufacturers had fulfilled their duty of care to create and release children’s products that are reasonably safe for a child’s use.
On April 29, 2014, for example, IKEA re-announced and expanded an earlier December 2013 recall of its Children’s Wall-mounted Lamps, which have been reported to pose a strangulation hazard to children, because the lamps’ electrical cords hang down from the lamps and can become entangled around a child’s neck. The combined recall covers approximately 3.5 million IKEA Children’s Wall-mounted Lamps that were sold in the United States, 1.4 million sold in Canada, and a total of 30.2 million, worldwide.
At least one death and another near-death have been reported to have occurred when children became entangled in the product’s cord. The Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC), which publishes recalls of such products on its website, has warned consumers to immediately remove these lamps from their walls and to contact IKEA for a repair kit, which contains instructions and self-adhesive fasteners to more safely attach the lamps to the walls of children’s rooms.
If your child has been injured by one of these lamps or by another children’s toy or product, you may be entitled to compensation through the institution of legal action. Nationally-recognized child-injury attorney Jeff Killino has extensive experience with cases involving injuries to children as a result of children’s use of or exposure to defective products. If your child has been injured or killed by a defective children’s product or toy, attorney Killino and his team of child-injury lawyers, child-accident lawyers, toy-accident lawyers, toy-injury lawyers, child brain-injury lawyers, defective children’s products lawyers, and wrongful-death lawyers will fight for the compensation to which you and your child are entitled as a result of your child’s injury or death.
Legal Liability for Injuries Caused by Defective Children’s Products
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), which was created in 1972 through the Consumer Product Safety Act (CPSA), regulates the manufacture and sale of more than 15,000 consumer products, including toys and products designed for use by or on children. The CPSC not only issues recalls when a defect or danger is discovered in a product already on the market, but also conducts research on the potential hazards of products under its jurisdiction. Under the product liability law of most states, manufacturers may be found liable for injuries caused to consumers as a result of a product’s defect. Manufacturers may be held liable for injuries caused by a product defect even when a product has been recalled or even when the manufacturer has no knowledge of the product’s defect.
Product Liability Law
Under the laws of most states, an action for product liability may be brought against a product’s manufacturer and others in the chain of the product’s distribution for injuries caused to a plaintiff as a result of a defect in the product. Though most jurisdictions provide for recovery through product liability actions under the three theories of breach of warranty, negligence, or strict liability, a strict liability theory is most often relied upon when recovery is sought for personal injuries caused by a product defect.
Recovery under Strict Liability Theory
A manufacturer of a defective product may be found liable for injuries caused to a plaintiff by the defect in such a product without proof of negligence in the creation of or release of the defective product or knowledge of the product’s defect. This rule of “strict liability” is based upon the law’s assumption that manufacturers owe a duty to consumers to create and release to the public only products that are reasonably safe for a consumer’s use.
Thus, if a plaintiff can establish that he or she was injured while using a product in the manner in which it was intended to be used, that the product was defective, that his or her injuries were caused by the product’s defect, and that the plaintiff’s injuries resulted in legally compensable damages, the plaintiff may recover such damages without establishing negligence or other fault (in addition to the release of the defective product to consumers) on the part of the manufacturer.
Defendants Subject to Strict Liability
In many states, manufacturers as well as others in the chain of a product’s distribution may be found strictly liable for injuries caused to a plaintiff as a result of a defect in the product’s design, manufacture, or failure to warn of inherent dangers. Thus, the designers, suppliers, component manufacturers and designers, assemblers, and retailers of a product may all be found strictly liable, under the laws of many states, for injuries caused to a plaintiff by any one of these categories of defects. In other states, however, retailers have been exempted from strict liability (as a result of the tort reform movement) for injuries caused to a plaintiff as a result of a product defect for which the retailer was not responsible.
Obtain Expert Assistance from Child-injury Attorney Jeff Killino
Nationally-recognized child-injury attorney Jeff Killino is dedicated to holding individuals and entities responsible for the injuries they have caused to children through their negligence or a defective product. If your child has been injured or killed in an accident caused by someone’s negligence or a defective children’s lamp or other children’s product, attorney Killino and his team of child-injury attorneys, child-accident attorneys, toy-accident attorneys, toy-injury attorneys, child brain-injury attorneys, defective children’s products attorneys, and wrongful-death attorneys will provide you with expert and compassionate assistance in obtaining the compensation and justice you and your child deserve.
