Drug Lawsuits and Product Liability Law

Product liability lawsuits depend upon several factors. In order for a consumer to have a claim, the product must have been designed, manufactured or advertised in a way that was flawed or deceptive. It also must have caused some sort of injury, physical or financial, to the person bringing the lawsuit. You cannot, for example, sue a manufacturer because they made a faulty product that you never used.

Drug Companies

Drug companies are frequently the targets of these lawsuits. Their products, however, sometimes embody more than one of the reasons that these lawsuits are brought in the first place. For instance, some drugs are found to be dangerous because they weren't manufactured in a way that was safe. Other cases involve drugs where the formulation was dangerous in and of itself and the manufacturer didn’t do enough work to find this out before releasing them on the market. In still other cases, it is found that a drug has very dangerous side effects and that consumers were never notified of that fact, which comprises the heart of the lawsuit.

Class Actions

When a lot of people suffer relatively similar injuries due to using the same product, their cases are sometimes batched together in what's called a class action lawsuit. This allows a case that accurately represents all of them to be heard by one judge, which obviously cuts down on the expense and court time involved in hearing the cases. This can only happen if there is one lawsuit that more or less represents all of the other claims brought against the manufacturer. The drug Chantix, for instance, is the subject of a class action suit that alleges that the users of the drug experience side effects that include aggression rage and sometimes suicidal tendencies.

Working with a Lawyer

Drug lawsuits are brought by a defective product attorney and the client they represent. If you're participating in a class action, you will not have to go to court, in all likelihood, and may be located clear across the nation from where the trial is actually being held. If you're part of a regular lawsuit, however, you and your lawyer may need to go to court to have your product liability claim heard by a jury. In some cases, the company may just settle the matter with you out of court of a lesser amount than the award you're seeking, which saves you the expense of a jury trial.