All manufacturers claim that their products are completely safe to use, however, since mistakes do happen, products can sometimes have defects when sold. If you have been injured by a defective product, you’ll naturally want to sue the manufacturer. Be sure to hire a good personal injury lawyer to represent you in court.

The first thing you need to know how to do is to name all potential defendants (guilty parties) in your product liability lawsuit. However, this is often easier said than done. That’s why you need a good personal injury lawyer in Menifee. You need to spend many hours with your attorney figuring out who all of the potential defendants who you can sue are. This will make it more likely that you win your settlement in court. State laws tend to be standardized in terms of the types of defendants who you can hold accountable in product defects lawsuits.

The chain of distribution and all parties involved

The path that the defective product that you bought takes from its start as a collection of raw materials to the finished product that was sold to you is referred to as the ‘chain of distribution’ in legal terms. There are many parties involved in this chain and it’s the job of both you and your personal injury lawyer to identify and hold as many of these people as possible accountable. The ‘individual entities’ involved in the typical ‘chain of distribution’ are further explained below.

Manufacturer

This entity begins the chain. The manufacturer is diverse. For example, it can range from a large and powerful multinational to a high school dropout who is working from his or her home. Be sure to work with your personal injury lawyer to name both the manufacturer of the larger and the smaller product in your defective products lawsuit if the product that hurt you was part of a larger product.

You want to name all people involved in the chain of distribution. These include those who made, designed, marketed, and distributed the product. These people are directly responsible for your personal injury. You especially want to include independent third parties who contributed to the design and distribution of the product. Such people would be independent consultants and contractors.

Retailer

Since the retailer knowingly sold you a defective product, you can sue that entity in court. This is because it is liable for your personal injury. You can also sue the retailer without having been the direct user of the product. If for example, your cousin was using the defective product and a part flew off and sliced your finger, the retailer would still be liable.You can also sue the supplier if you bought a used product that was defective and caused you bodily injury as a result.

Wholesale distributors

Since they distributed the defective product to the store that you bought it from, they are also part of the chain of distribution. You can therefore sue them in court.

What if the defendant is a corporation? – You can still sue the defendant even if it is a corporate entity. This is because they are regarded to be the equivalent of ‘living persons’ from the legal standpoint.

What if the defendant is from another country? – You can still sue a foreign company. This is because any company doing business in America must also follow its national and international rules.

If you are suing many defendants, you may have a joint and several liability lawsuits

The joint and several liability doctrines states that all defendants are collectively and individually liable for your personal injury. You can therefore sue all of them,the joint and several liability laws allows them to split the settlement’ bill.’ Each entity can pay you a part of the settlement this way.