If you have been suffering from an injury due to a defective or dangerous product, it is important that you consult a qualified product liability lawyer immediately.  Product liability cases are usually complex and require the expertise of a lawyer to make sure that all important and crucial pieces of evidence and potential claims are well-maintained. The discussion here defines some steps and factors that will be taken in preparing the product liability action.

Immediate Investigation

The days right after an accident are the crucial factors in establishing the phase for a successful product liability action. The first concern when somebody is injured by a defective or dangerous product after the medical treatment is done is to look and call a reliable and experienced product liability lawyer who will make sure that all the pieces of evidence are kept and maintained. The product that injures the plaintiff must be acquired and secured right after the incident to make sure of its availability later during the event when the plaintiff needs to prove his claim and to guarantee that its condition will not be altered or destroyed, which may affect the case.

The defective product must be stored in a place where you and your lawyer can monitor and control. Keep the defective product that injured you unless it poses immediate harm. Avoid selling or turn over the product to anybody including the investigator before consulting your lawyer. There are some big manufacturers who read newspapers and may try to secure the evidence to deny plaintiffs to pursue with their claims.

If the product is hard to secure immediately, place everybody on notice including the tow-truck operators, wrecking yards, and police impounds so that they will cooperate in preserving the product which is the evidence. Failure to do this may expose them to be held liable to allow the evidence to be destroyed or lost. If the product is acquired by a third party or one of the potential defendants, your lawyer may right away file an action for temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction to prevent the changes to or destructive testing of the product.

Your lawyer will gather a complete history of the product and determine the date of the original sale, know the dealer, distributor, succeeding buyers, lessees, and users. It is vital to trace the instruction manual, assembly booklet, warranties and all written materials that accompanied the new product during the time of the original sale and distribution. You may also be asked by your lawyer to help him/her to know whether the product was altered after it left the custody of the manufacturer and distributor and if so, the identity of the individuals or entities that made the alterations and the dates involved.

Experts

A winning product liability case usually needs the help and testimony of a professional.  Basic types of experts retained in product liability cases are the safety experts, engineers, and medical professionals. The major factor to be successful in proving your case is finding the qualified expert for the litigation procedure.

Expert engineering statement is critical in proving that the design or manufacturing defect in a product has caused the plaintiff’s injury.  Aside from engineering testimonies, your lawyer may also need the statements of psychologists or other experts specializing in the field of human factors.  This is in case when an engineering technique may fail to consider a product must be created not to work but so that other people can use it. A biochemical analysis can show a concealed danger for the unwary user or a practical method to avoid injuries which are based on the understanding f human tendencies and behaviors.

Either side in the trial and even the court may need and call upon an expert for his testimonies, guidelines of expert witness ethics must always prevail.

Expert testing, either they are destructive or non-destructive, of the product involved at issue may be needed to know whether there is evidence that the product failed or could fail in the way claimed by the plaintiff.