Boise Product Liability Attorneys

There are different types of product liability cases. The best answer to that question is there are a variety of products that can cause or can lead to pursuing a product liability claim. Here are a few examples. Let’s say that you’ve had a hip replacement surgery and you’ve never done well with that hip replacement and you read of have reason to believe otherwise that there could be a problem with the hardware or the medical device that was used during the hip replacement surgery. That would be a specific type of product liability case that involves medical devices that have failed. Frankly, those types of cases are occurring all over the country. It is a pretty common type of product liability case that is being litigated all over the country. Our law firm has handled many of those cases and could help you with determining whether you have a viable case of any type that involves a medical device.

There are other types of product liability cases. For example, cases that involved medical problems related to taking a drug. Many of you may have read about or seen advertisements on TV related to drug litigation. Those are product liability cases. Drug related product liability cases are very expensive cases. It’s probably not practical to handle a single or even a few drug product liability cases where typically the lawyers handling cases involving a drug failure would be handling them as part of a class action lawsuit. Again, if you have questions related to your particular situation, and whether it’s drug related, medical device related, machine related, what have you, our law firm is experienced with handling product liability cases. We can answer your questions, give you some competent guidance, and help you if it falls within something that we have expertise with. Just as important, we give you good guidance on what you need to do if it isn’t something our law firm can help you with. Feel free to give our law firm, the Hepworth Holzer law firm, a call and we’ll help you in any way we can.

Are there time limits that apply to product liability cases in Idaho? This is a pretty complex question. A general rule that applies to personal injury cases and therefore arguably to product liability cases in Idaho is you have two years from the date of injury to pursue your product liability claim. Again, that’s a general rule and there are exceptions. This is a topic that underscores the importance of talking to a knowledgeable attorney who will recognize the complexity of the question related to the time limitations for pursuing a product liability claim. Make sure you talk to a knowledgeable and experienced product liability lawyer because time limitations on cases are very important topics. If you go beyond the time limit for a case before you pursue the case, you can prevent it legally from pursuing the case. With a question that is as important as that, consult your lawyer, and make sure you’re consulting a lawyer who is knowledgeable and who you have confidence is giving you good advice. For questions like that, you’re welcome to call the Hepworth Holzer law firm and we’ll meet with you and discuss your case with you and answer questions like that.

How do you settle a product liability case outside of court in Idaho? The simple answer to that question is that to be successful with settling a product liability claim in Idaho you want to start with hiring a highly qualified knowledgeable product liability lawyer. Once you’ve hired an experienced, knowledgeable product liability lawyer, your lawyer will know the steps to take in order to evaluate your case, in order to help you identify the experts necessary to prove your case and to take the steps. Whether it involves contacting the manufacturer to explore a resolution to the case or whether it involves filing a lawsuit to begin the process of pursuing a case. It’s important to understand that if you file a lawsuit, that does not necessarily mean that your case will go to trial. Filing the lawsuit is the start of the lawsuit process. Many cases where a lawsuit has been filed will resolve through a settlement before the case goes to trial. Again, the most important part of that answer is hire an experienced, capable product liability lawyer and they can give you the representation you need in order to explore settling your case before it goes to trial. If you have questions like that or other questions related to product liability cases, give us a call at Hepworth Holzer and we will be happy to help you.

The question is how to go about selecting the right lawyer for a product liability case. I’d say the most important consideration as far as picking the right lawyer for a product liability case is you want a lawyer who is experienced with handling personal injury cases because a product liability case is a specialized form of a personal injury case. Personal injury is a broader group of cases. Personal injuries can occur in a variety of ways. For a product liability personal injury case, you certainly want a lawyer who at least has experience with personal injuries. Optimally, you would like to have a lawyer who has significant experience with product liability cases. Now, even again within the general category of product liability cases, there are a number of different types of product liability cases and it may well be necessary to find a lawyer who specializes in the exact type of product failure that was the cause of your injury. That may require going to a national firm but it would be best to start locally because there are a lot of advantages to having a lawyer from your own jurisdiction, in this case, Boise, Idaho, or the jurisdiction of Idaho, to help you with your case. If you have questions about the possibility of a product liability case and you’d like to talk to a lawyer with experience, please give the Hepworth Holzer law firm, a call and one of us will be happy to answer your questions and help in any way we can.

How does an individual know that they have a product liability claim in Idaho? To begin with, a product liability claim refers to any product that fails causing injury to an individual. That definition will hold true whether the case is in Boise, Idaho, or anywhere else in the country. Product liability laws can differ from state to state but that’s the general working definition of a product liability claim. The product failure can be a medical device. It can be a drug. It can be a piece of machinery that doesn’t work properly. The products that give rise to product liability cases can be highly varied but you’ll know that you have a product liability claim if you are injured and the source or the cause of the injury is a product that has failed.

People often wonder how to pay the lawyer for handling a product liability case. Almost all product liability cases are handled by law firms on a contingent fee. Now, there may well be a few limited exceptions to that statement but those exceptions would likely be limited to individuals who have substantial wealth who for whatever reason decide that they would prefer to pay a lawyer by the hour and pay an hourly fee as the case is being worked on rather than paying a contingent fee. A contingent fee refers to a fee arrangement between attorney and client where the lawyer is paid a percentage of the recovery. The percentage can differ from case to case but almost certainly would be 25% or more. The percentage fee is likely to be not more than 40% of the recovery. Somewhere in the range of 25% to 40% is the range the case could fall in as far as the contingent fee the lawyer would charge.

It’s possible the lawyer would charge a different fee depending on whether the case settled, whether the case went to trial, and whether the case was appealed after the trial. Again, that differs from case to case and law firm to law firm. Generally speaking, contingent fees are used for product liability cases, that way you’re not paying the lawyer as the lawyer does the work. You’re not financial stressed as the case is unfolding. You don’t have to pay the lawyer anything if the lawyer doesn’t make a recovery for you. There are a lot of advantages to contingent fees and you should have a good thorough discussion with the lawyer about all aspects of the contingent fee arrangement when you’re selecting a lawyer. If you have questions about contingent fee arrangements or the use of contingent fee arrangements in product liability cases, you should call Hepworth Holzer law firm and any of us can help you with questions related to that topic.

How long will it take, from beginning to end, to go through a product liability case? There’s no simple answer to that question. The starting point for the answer to that question is that the assumption is your case would be filed in Idaho. Frankly, not all product liability cases that we handle are from Idaho at our law firm, are filed in Idaho, but let’s assume your case is filed in Idaho. The time from filing a lawsuit to having your day in trial for a case in Idaho, excluding considerations for the COVID-19 virus, will probably be in the neighborhood of not less than 15 months, not more than 24 months. That’s probably a fair range of time from when you first file the lawsuit to when you will be in trial for the case if the case goes to trial. Many cases settle before trial so obviously if the case does not go to trial, the time would be less than the 15 to 24-month estimate that I’ve given.

There can be appeals following trials and that extends the length of time that it could take to resolve the case by at least a year and probably more than a year. There also may be some time spent investigating the product failure that takes place before you file the lawsuit. That can vary from case to case and that could extend the length of time from beginning to end. Generally speaking, from the time of filing the lawsuit to the time of trial in Idaho is anywhere from a minimum of about 15 months to not much more than about 24 months. If you have questions related to product liability cases or any issues you’re dealing with related to considering whether you have a product liability case, please give us a call at Hepworth and Holzer and we’ll help you any way we can.

If you’re injured by a product and you contact the manufacturer of the product to place them on notice that their product has injured you and if the product manufacturer asks you to send them the product, should you do that? The simple answer to that question is no. You don’t want to send the product to the manufacturer because the product is critical evidence that you’ll need in order to prove your case. The product could be lost in the mail. The product could be misplaced by the manufacturer. The bottom line is you need the product in order to be able to pursue your product liability claim. It would be a mistake to send the product to the manufacturer. Now, the manufacturer will probably try to impress upon you the importance of inspecting the product in order to provide you with compensation but you can arrange for the product to be inspected by the manufacturer by retaining the product and giving the product manufacturer an opportunity to come inspect the product while it’s in your control. You can satisfy the manufacturer’s need to inspect the product by giving them an opportunity to come to you to inspect the product rather than delivering the product to them. You can’t afford to lose the product because it’s vital to proving your case. If you have questions about product liability cases, please contact our firm at Hepworth Holzer and we’ll happily answer any questions you have.

What is the cost of pursuing a product liability case in Idaho? The answer is it can vary dramatically. In product liability cases, most are typically handled on a contingent fee basis. That means that you pay the lawyer a percentage of the recovery at the end of the case. The payment to the lawyer is not based on the time the lawyer spends. It’s based on the outcome of the case. If there’s no recovery, there’s no obligation to pay the attorney. That’s one form of cost that would be involved in the product liability claim. The second, and equally important, type of cost is the cost of hiring experts to help you prove your case. Those costs can be significant. It really depends on the case. A qualified lawyer would have a good discussion with you about the potential costs involved in your particular case to help you understand what those costs might include, whether those costs can be prohibited as far as the feasibility of pursuing the case, whose responsibility it is to pay those costs.

If you are looking into a product liability case, you certainly want to have a clear understanding of the attorney fee arrangement with the lawyer who will be representing you. Just as importantly, you want to have a clear understanding of the costs that will be involved, whether it be paying for experts or other costs that are typically involved. A good lawyer will be able to explain those to you, answer your questions related to those costs, and help you understand whether the case that you’re investigating is feasible from a cost standpoint or not. If you have questions about product liability cases and the costs that are involved, we would be happy to visit with you. Call the Hepworth Holzer law firm and we’ll do our best to help you as you’re evaluating that case.

People often wonder what type of compensation is available to an individual who’s been injured in a product liability case. The answer is that the damages or the compensation that an individual can pursue in a product liability case is pretty much the same as for any personal injury case. The following is a list of the types of compensation that is typically involved in a product liability case.
First and the most obvious type of damage or compensation that you would pursue would be recovery of medical expenses that you incurred as a result of being injured as a result of a product failure. In some cases, individuals will sustain injuries that require ongoing medical care. In those cases, there will be medical expenses that are incurred from the time of the event to the time of trial. In addition to that, there will be ongoing medical expenses into the future and you would pursue the recovery of both. Medical expenses are the most obvious form of compensation that you would pursue in a product liability case.

Some people are unable to work due to the severity of their injury. Those individuals would claim a loss of income. Again, some individuals are only temporarily displaced from their work. Their loss of income may be of a shorter duration. You would pursue the recovery of loss of income from the time of the accident up through the time that you’re able to return to work. Other individuals may have injuries that are so severe that they simply can’t return to work at all or can’t return to the same form of work they were doing before because of the severity of their injury. Those individuals may have claims that involve losses extending over the course of their remaining work life. You can understand from that answer that the claims for loss of income can vary dramatically from case to case and depend on both the severity of the injury and its impact on your ability to work. Loss of income related to your injury is certainly another very common form of compensation that is pursued in a product liability case.

All product liability cases involve a claim for pain and suffering. Pain and suffering is a type of claim that is made to compensate individuals for, not only the physical pain involved with their injury and the suffering that they experienced with their injury, but also it refers to their displacement from being able to engage in the normal day to day activities that they typically would engage in. Whether it’s recreational or a hobby or relationships with family members or loved ones, all of those issues and more come within the topic of pain and suffering. It’s possible to pursue recovery of compensation for those injuries. Some states (and Idaho is certainly one of them) have adopted laws that limit the amount you can recover for pain and suffering damages. It’s important to understand that and to be clear about that as you are making decisions about whether to pursue your case. If you have questions about the types of compensation that you can pursue in a product liability case, again, that’s an important topic to discuss with your lawyer. We at Hepworth Holzer are familiar with those types of questions in product liability cases and we’d be happy to answer your questions and help you decide whether you have a product liability claim and whether it makes sense to pursue it.