Product Liability Attorneys Fighting for Injured Victims Across Illinois, Florida, and Beyond

What Is a Product Liability Claim?

Manufacturers have a responsibility to put reasonably safe products into the hands of consumers. When a product is defectively designed, poorly manufactured, or sold without proper safety warnings, injured victims may have the right to bring a product liability claim.

These cases generally fall into three categories:

Defective Design Claims

A defective design claim applies when the product was unsafe from the start. The problem is not a mistake made during production. Instead, the danger is built into the product’s design.

Examples may include vehicles with unstable structures, consumer products configured in a dangerous way, or medical devices designed in a way that creates a foreseeable risk of injury.

Manufacturing Defects

A manufacturing defect occurs when a product’s design may be acceptable, but something goes wrong during production or assembly. In these cases, a specific unit or batch doesn’t match the intended design.

Examples may include improperly installed airbags, weak welds in structural components, contaminated medical equipment, or defective parts that fail during normal use.

Failure to Warn and Inadequate Labeling

Some products carry risks that consumers are never properly warned about. When a company knows or should know about a danger and fails to disclose it, that failure can support a product liability claim.

Failure-to-warn cases may involve dangerous drugs, medical devices, toxic substances, household products, industrial products, or consumer goods sold without clear instructions or safety labels.

Dangerous Product Cases We Handle

Product liability litigation can involve everyday consumer goods, workplace equipment, vehicles, medical products, pharmaceuticals, and toxic substances. Nessler & Associates has experience with high-profile dangerous product claims, including:

• 3M Combat Arms earplugs: Claims involving hearing loss and tinnitus among military service members and veterans.
• Philips CPAP machines: Claims involving foam degradation and potential exposure to harmful particles or chemicals.
• Hernia mesh devices: Claims involving pain, infection, revision surgery, and other serious complications.
• Zantac: Claims involving ranitidine products pulled from the market over contamination concerns.
• Takata airbags: Claims involving airbags that ruptured and sent metal fragments into vehicle occupants.
• DePuy Orthopedics hip implants: Claims involving defective hip replacement devices and large-scale recalls.
• GM gas tanks: Claims involving dangerous fuel system defects.
• Roundup herbicide: Claims involving allegations related to non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
• Talcum powder products: Claims involving alleged links to ovarian cancer.

You can also learn more about our asbestos exposure and mesothelioma cases.

Individual Lawsuits, MDLs, and Class Actions

When a defective product harms many people, claims may proceed in different ways. The right legal path depends on the product, the injury, the number of people affected, and the damages involved.

Individual lawsuits: An individual lawsuit is your own case. You pursue your own damages, and any recovery belongs to you. This approach may be appropriate when injuries are severe, losses are substantial, or the facts of your case are highly specific.

Multi-district litigation: A multi-district litigation, often called an MDL, allows many individual cases involving the same product to be coordinated before one federal judge for pretrial proceedings. Your claim remains your own, but discovery and key legal issues are managed more efficiently. Many major product liability cases, including 3M earplug and Philips CPAP claims, have proceeded through MDLs.

Class actions: A class action involves one lawsuit brought on behalf of a group of people with similar claims. Any recovery is divided among class members. Class actions are usually better suited for cases where injuries are similar and individual damages are relatively modest.

For victims with serious injuries, an individual lawsuit or MDL often makes more sense than a class action. Our attorneys can review the facts and explain which path may apply.

A $1.7 Million Product Liability Result

At Nessler & Associates, we’ve represented a person who was partially paralyzed because of a defective seat belt buckle. That case settled for $1.7 million.

We don’t share this result as a promise of what will happen in any future case. Every claim depends on its own facts, injuries, evidence, and applicable law. We share it because it shows what serious product liability litigation can require: detailed investigation, expert testimony, preparation, and the willingness to pursue accountability from companies that may deny responsibility.

You can review additional outcomes of our case results.

Why Strict Liability Matters

Product liability cases are different from many other personal injury claims. In a typical negligence case, the injured person must prove that someone acted carelessly. Product liability law may allow claims to proceed under a strict liability theory.

Under strict liability, the focus is on the product itself. You generally need to show that the product was defective and that the defect caused your injury. You don’t necessarily need to prove that the manufacturer intended to cause harm or knew the product would injure someone.

That distinction matters. Strict liability helps level the field for injured victims facing large manufacturers, distributors, insurers, and defense teams.

Product Liability Attorneys Serving Multiple States

Defective product cases often involve more than one state. A product may be designed in one state, manufactured in another, sold nationwide, and cause injury somewhere else. That can raise important questions about jurisdiction, filing deadlines, venue, and which state’s product liability laws apply.

Our attorneys handle product liability cases in various locations, including Illinois, Florida, Texas, and Colorado. Our office locations include Springfield, Champaign, Chicago, and Rockford in Illinois; Largo, Tampa, and St. Petersburg in Florida; Fort Worth in Texas; and Denver, Colorado. 

If you were injured by a defective product, our attorneys can review where the injury happened, where the product was sold, and which legal deadlines may apply to your claim.