Business Week has reported that Ford Motor Company was among US companies with the most product defects.
Both plaintiffs and defendant companies are increasingly willing to take product liability cases to trial, according to defense lawyer John Beisner.
For plaintiffs, there is a perception that juries are more open to arguments about corporate behavior. However, Victor Schwartz, another defense attorney, said some corporate defense lawyers underestimate jurors perceptions.
Several companies — from drug manufacturers to tobacco firms to auto makers have been hit hard when juries found their products defective.
Ford has lost at least four defective-vehicle cases of $10 million or more in the last year.
The United States Supreme Court just recently declined Ford’s appeal on Ford Explorer stability and rollover case. In that case, a California woman was paralyzed after her Explorer became unstable and rolled over. A California jury awarded her more than $300 million in damages. That damage amount was later reduced by the trial court and later again by the Court of Appeals. The United States Supreme Court refused Ford’s appeal, sanctioning the final award of $83 million, including $55 million in punitive damages.
You can learn more about auto defect dangers at our blog or at our web site.
Learn more about Langdon & Emison and become a fan on Facebook.
Brett Emison is currently a partner at Langdon & Emison, a firm dedicated to helping injured victims across the country from their primary office near Kansas City. Mainly focusing on catastrophic injury and death cases as well as complex mass tort and dangerous drug cases, Mr. Emison often deals with automotive defects, automobile crashes, railroad crossing accidents (train accidents), trucking accidents, dangerous and defective drugs, defective medical devices.
Comments for this article are closed.