How Much is a Product Liability Claim Worth?

Consumers can suffer severe injuries from defective or dangerous products, such as car parts, toys, medication, etc. These can leave the designer, manufacturer, distributor, or seller of the product liable in a product liability claim. To recover compensation for damages, such as medical bills, lost earning potential, and mental anguish, you must prove the at-fault party’s negligent behavior is why the dangerous product caused your injuries.

The value of a product liability claim depends on what damages you suffered, whether you suffered a long-term injury with expensive medical bills, and if you experienced a reduced quality of life due to injuries. A product liability lawyer can help you calculate the current and future cost of your damages by speaking to your doctors and experts to project future costs for your injuries. The product liability lawyers at Jones Law Group can assist you in damage calculation, as well as collecting evidence, determining the at-fault party, and negotiating with the liable party’s insurance company.

Product Manufacturers Can Be Held Liable for Dangerous Products

A product liability claim involves a consumer receiving harm from a dangerous product. There are three types of product liability claims: design defects, manufacturing defects, and failure to warn. A product can be inherently dangerous in how it’s designed, a mistake during manufacturing can make a product dangerous, or a manufacturer can fail to warn consumers about the dangers of a product.

These negligent mistakes can leave a company in the distribution channel liable for damages. Companies like designers, manufacturers, distributors, and sellers owe it to consumers to properly handle designing, creating, and packaging products. They must ensure a product is not dangerous or defective before it hits the market, and failure to do so can leave them liable for a product liability claim. 

Severe Injuries Caused by Defective Products

The process for determining the value of your product liability claim is assessing your injuries. A consumer that receives harm from a dangerous or defective product will likely suffer a severe injury, such as a facial injury, broken bones, or internal injury. It’s also likely that dangerous medications could cause severe illnesses.

If you suffer a severe injury or illness from a dangerous product, your product liability claim is likely to have a higher value. Your product liability claim worth comes down to the cost of your damages and how your injury or illness affects your life. If you do not suffer a severe injury or illness, the effect on your life and the cost of medical treatment will be minimal, which could reduce the value of your product liability claim.

Product Liability Claim Value Determined by Economic Damages

You can determine the value of your product liability claim by assessing the economic damages caused by a dangerous product. These are the monetary losses you have to account for financially after receiving a severe injury or illness from a dangerous product.

The most common type of economic damage is medical bills. After suffering a severe injury or illness, you must see a healthcare provider to begin receiving medical treatment through medication, physical therapy, or surgery. Your medical expenses depend on the severity of your medical condition. A serious medical condition could be expensive not only now but also in the future if you require further medical treatment down the line. Speak to your healthcare provider and medical experts to determine the full value of your current and future medical costs.

Lost wages can also result from a medical condition caused by a harmful product. Those who suffer severe injury will likely have to take time off work to recover, losing monetary compensation. The injury can also affect your ability to return to your former career. For example, you could receive harm to your eyes from an appliance that malfunctions. This can affect your vision, making it unlikely to be able to work a job like a bus driver that requires full vision. In this case, you could pursue lost earning potential for the wages you missed out on from being unable to return to your career.

Non-Economic Damages Can Affect the Worth of a Product Liability Claim

Victims of dangerous products can also experience suffering in the form of non-economic damages that affect their quality of life. These intangible losses do not have a monetary value but affect your life. Non-economic damages that can reduce a person’s quality of life include pain and suffering, mental anguish, loss of consortium, loss of enjoyment of life, etc.

Determining the value of your non-economic damages can happen through two distinct methods. The multiplier method involves multiplying the value of your economic damages by a number ranging from one to five, with the number increasing based on the severity of your non-economic damages. The “per diem” method involves receiving an amount of compensation that reflects the cost of your suffering every day until you reach maximum medical improvement.

Hire a Product Liability Lawyer to Help You Calculate the Value of Your Claim

Hiring a product liability lawyer can help calculate the full value of your product liability claim. Their experience with this type of claim can help, as they can use methods they have in the past to determine how economic and non-economic damages can affect a dangerous product victim throughout their life.

Recovering full value for a product liability claim involves collecting tangible evidence to prove the at-fault party’s liability. A product liability lawyer can also help collect evidence that proves the at-fault party’s negligent behavior led to the dangerous product causing an adverse medical condition for the victim. A product liability attorney can also prove their value by explaining a dangerous product victim’s rights, negotiating with the at-fault party’s insurance company, and representing them in court.

Contact Jones Law Group Today for Help With Your Product Liability Claim

At Jones Law Group, our product liability lawyers have over 100 years of combined experience helping victims recover compensation for damages caused by dangerous products. Some examples of product liability lawsuits we’ve been involved in include those regarding cancer caused by hair relaxers, toxic firefighting foam, and talc powder. Our product liability lawyers can use their extensive experience litigating these types of claims to put you in the best position to recover fair compensation for your damages. We offer free consultations to all personal injury victims to show how we can help them recover compensatory damages. Contact us today at 727-571-1333 or leave a message on our online contact page.