Amazon Product Injury Lawyer
Amazon offers a wide range of products and services. They are known for providing a wide range of categories to their customers and operates one of the world’s largest online retail platforms. Unfortunately, some of the products sold on Amazon are defective, dangerous, and cause injuries.
It’s Not Just Amazon
Dangerous products that injure people are for sale on other online retail sites as well. This includes eBay.
Furthermore brick-and-mortar retailers like Walmart and Target may also sell potentially dangerous products. Many of these online sites do a great job making a range of affordable or hard-to-find items available to people. Unfortunately some of the products they sell turn out to be junk, stuff that breaks easily, doesn’t function as intended, or worse, injures people.
Potential Dangers of Amazon Products or Products Sold on Other Online Sites
Many people are buying products and services from Amazon on a daily basis. Some of these products are unreasonably dangerous, have undisclosed risks, and are injuring people as a result. We have found e-scooters, pressure cookers, air fryers, heating blankets, table saws, magnets, baby sleepers, and other products subject to recalls or which otherwise present hazards in various online sites over the years. We have litigated against Amazon, eBay, and others.
Examples of Dangerous Amazon Products or Products Sold on Other Online Sites
Electric Scooters
eScooters, which we have been litigating for years, can pose a danger to the public. We have been writing about this product for a while.
- e-scooter malfunction
- Suing after a Scooter Handle Collapses or Causes Injury
- How Scooter Defects Cause Injury
- Electric Scooter Accident Lawsuits: Who is Liable in an Electric Scooter Injury?
- Maryland electric scooter accident
- eScooter Injury and Claims Update
Eyedrops
Customers have been experienced contaminated eyedrops cases purchased from Amazon or other online sites.
Skymagnets
Children can swallow magnets and suffer serious injuries from these products sold on Amazon and other other sites.
Air Fryers/Pressure Cookers
Many air fryers may pose safety risks like overheating, faulty seals, or even electrical hazards. We have written about this issue many times.
- Recall of 3 Million Air Fryers from Insignia, Cosori and Magic Chef- Risk of Burn Injuries; Air Fryer Recall
- The Dangers of Air Fryers
- PowerXL Air Fryer Recall
- SharkNinja Ninja Foodi Pressure Cooker Potential Dangers
- Sunbeam Products Faces Lawsuit Over Defective Pressure Cooker
- Pressure Cooker Explosions: The Terrifying Dangers and How to Protect Yourself
To avoid accidents, always check for safety certifications, read customer reviews, and follow the manufacturer’s instructions carefully. Make sure the product has features like automatic shut-off or pressure release valves to reduce risks.
Electric Blankets
Baby Products
Babies Are Dying in Infant Sleepers – Stop Using Fisher-Price Rock’n Play Baby Sleepersw
Travel Coffee Mugs
There was a recent recall of millions of Stanley’s Switchback and Trigger travel mugs. They were sold on Amazon and via other online retailers.
Injured from Products Sold on Amazon or Other Online Sites?
People injured from products sold on Amazon or other online sites like Walmart and e-Bay may have viable personal injury claims. Personal injury claims involve seeking contention for harm suffered due to someone else negligence or wrongful actions. Here are the basics.
Types of Personal Injury Claims
Products sold on Amazon and other sites can injure people. These can include accidents at home and workplace injuries. Claims may include product liability claims or negligence.
Key Negligence Elements: To succeed, a Claim Must Prove
- Duty of Care: the responsible party owed a duty of care to the injured party. Here, Amazon and other online retailers must assure the products they allow to be sold on their sites are safe.
- Breach of Duty: the responsible party breached that duty. Online retailers can breach this duty by ignoring recalls, ignoring safety signals via customer comments and other sources, and leaving dangerous products on shelves.
- Causation: The breach directly caused the injury. Typically this involves linking the injury to the product, and showing how the failure to remove a product or to allow it to be sold led to the injury at issue.
- Damage: The injury resulted in measurable damages (this includes medical expenses, lost wages, pain and suffering etc.)
Distributor Liability
Our Amazon product liability attorneys wrote recently about one legal theory to obtain compensation for people injured by Amazon products. See more here:
By way of other examples, there are two CA appellate cases (2021 and 2020) holding that Amazon can be held strictly liable for items purchased through the site that were both sold and manufactured by third parties. Thus, recourse is available.
Anticipated Defenses
Some online companies like Amazon may defend claims by arguing that they aren’t the makers or even sellers of the products at issue. They contend they are mere marketplaces for private parties to buy and sell products. They aver the manufacturer is the proper and only defendant when a product sold online inures someone.
There is a federal law Amazon and other online retailers may hide behind, the Communications Decency Act. Put simply, the argument goes something like this – the online site didn’t make or sell the product. It is just a conduit, a publisher or someone else’s marketing and advertising for products that other person or entity sells. Good product liability lawyers will know how to litigate this issue.
Traditional defenses like contributory or comparative negligence and assumption of the risk will come into play. Product liability defenses will arise too. A product liability attorney knows how to litigate these defenses. An Amazon product liability lawyer will also know how to do so within the context of this special transaction.
Filing a Claim
Generally, claims can be filed through insurance companies, via arbitration or in court. The process usually involves documenting the injury, gathering evidence and negotiating settlements. A claim can end up in court or arbitration depending on the transaction. Amazon changed its arbitration clauses and practices years ago. Other sites are more aggressive forcing consumers into arbitration. Someone who suffered an injury from an Amazon product or product sold elsewhere online can go at it alone. Smaller claims, lesser injuries that heal quickly and don’t involve any real pain and suffering may be best dealt with directly with the companies. Otherwise, we believe a product liability lawyer is the best option. Contact us via our form, by phone at 855-KBA-LAWS (522-5297) or by email at info@kbaattorneys.com. Learn more about some of the legal challenges associated with Amazon claims or other online retailer.
Statute of Limitations
There is a time limit for filing a claim, which varies by jurisdiction and type of injury. Failing to file within this period can affect recovery.
Legal Representation
Many people hire personal injury lawyers to navigate the legal process, negotiate settlements and represent them in court if needed. A product liability attorney can help establish the product as the cause of an individual’s injuries. They can then show the online retailer was at fault. Any litigator and trial lawyer has to be able to also tell the client’s story to recover the full scope of damages.
Types of Legal Claims That People Injured by Products Sold Online May Be Able to Assert
When someone buys a product on Amazon.com, Target, Walmart, eBay.com, or other sites and that product injures them, they may be able to assert a claim for damages. Here are some potential claims that could apply to personal injuries from online products.
Negligence occurs when someone fails to exercise reasonable care, resulting in harm to another person. It involves a breach of duty of care that causes injury or damage.
Product liability involves holding manufacturers, distributors or sellers accountable for harm caused by defective or unsafe products. There can be strict liability, which does not turn on the defendants’ knowledge per se. These claims may be more difficult against online retailers like Amazon.
KBA put up some additional information concerning the legal challenges associated with Amazon injury, Walmart product injury, and eBay injury cases. See more here
We are personal injury lawyers. More specifically, product liability attorneys. We also do some class action work and serve as consumer protection attorneys at times. States have laws to protect consumers like the Maryland Consumer Protection Act. Other states have deceptive trade practice acts. In both cases, deceptive trade practices can be actionable. Some allow for statutory damages, treble damages, or attorneys’ fees. Here we’ve focused mostly on personal injury claims, but there are other claims one could bring, and in some cases, we asset both.
Contact KBA if an Amazon Product or Other Online Retailer’s Product Injured You
We have had success representing people with injuries from products sold on Amazon, eBay, and other online retailers. If you have experienced harmful effects from any products, Contact Us via our form or by phone at 855-KBA-LAWS (522-5297) or via email at info@kbaattorneys.com. Not every injury stems from a defective product. Even if the product caused the injury, a claim may not be plausible. Find out about your specific situation if you bought a product online at Amazon, Walmart, Target, eBay, or elsewhere and you were injured.
Note: We’ve used the phrase. Amazon products, here. Amazon sells products branded as Amazon products. Our use here is intentionally broader – we mean any product sold on Amazon.com.