Your face may have sustained severe burns after your compact blender exploded in front of you. Or instead of a kitchen appliance, your mobile tablet may have exploded while you were using and charging it at the same time. As you’re sure that you didn’t mishandle either your compact blender or your mobile tablet, those two gadgets were defective from the get-go. But whereas most other victims of defective gadgets might simply chalk their injuries up to being gullible enough to buy them, you aren’t one to easily give up your consumer rights like that. In fact, here are some things that you can do from a legal standpoint if a defective gadget caused an injury:
- File a compensation claim against the insurance provider of the defective gadget’s manufacturer.
Manufacturers of various gadgets protect themselves from being held liable under the law after they’ve obtained product liability insurance.
- However, the product liability insurance carried by the manufacturer of the defective gadget that injured you shouldn’t stop you from filing a compensation claim against their insurance provider. All you’ll need to do is to show that the defective item itself directly caused the injuries you sustained, and you didn’t destroy it to make it appear as if it were defective.
- The insurance provider of the defective gadget’s manufacturer is then supposed to give you an initial settlement amount to compensate for the injuries caused by their client’s bad product.
- But unlike most other compensation claims, making one against the insurance provider of the manufacturer of the defective gadget that injured you can be challenging, most especially as they can shift the blame to you. You’ll thus want to hire a lawyer to help you out with your claim.
- Consider settling out of court with the defective item’s manufacturer and their defense attorney.
If you feel that the initial settlement amount that the insurance provider of the defective gadget’s manufacturer offered you isn’t enough to cover all your medical and hospital bills, you may want to settle out of court with the defendant. It’s up to you if you and the manufacturer of the defective item that injured you want to settle your differences either through mediation or arbitration as long as you can both agree on a final settlement amount that they’re supposed to give you.
- File a lawsuit against the manufacturer of the defective gadget that injured you.
But in case the manufacturer of the defective gadget that injured you isn’t open to an out of court settlement, you can file a formal complaint against them in court. You might have to be a bit patient though after pursuing this step as trials typically take years to conclude, and even then, the judge who heard your case may decide in favor of the defective gadget’s manufacturer.
According to the Insurance Information Institute, juries across the entire United States have awarded as much as nearly five million dollars to plaintiffs who have filed a personal injury lawsuit against manufacturers of defective products in 2015. But while you shouldn’t assume that you’ll also get five million dollars after doing the above-listed things that you can do from a legal standpoint if a defective gadget caused you injury, it wouldn’t hurt to defend your rights as a consumer who deserves to use any product without getting harmed by it. You should keep your lawyer by your side too so that they can help you earn your rightful compensation.
