During the past several years, widespread publicity on
Ford Explorers and Firestone tires has rekindled interest
in information and knowledge of crashworthiness litigation.
For the lawyer, who may be faced with a catastrophic
injury or death arising in any one of many types of
automobile crashes, it is important to remember that
Explorer-Firestone issues are only the tip of the iceberg
of the kinds of automotive defects that may confront
the practicing lawyer.
The purpose of this paper is to briefly summarize
some of the more well-known and widespread automotive
defects which the practicing lawyer may see, to present
pointers on how to recognize potential causes of action
that should not be overlooked, and to point out actions
that should be taken immediately to preserve the client's
rights.
This is not an exhaustive listing of known automotive
defects, and one must be aware of the possibility of
previously unrecognized defects in any given event.
But, for the general practice lawyer, or anyone not
specializing in crashworthiness and automotive defect
litigation, it is not necessary to be able to make
the final determination that a crashworthiness case
does or does not exist in a given situation. The first
question is Is this a potential crashworthiness
case? We hope the information on these pages will help
to answer that critical question, and the second, related
question What do I do with it?
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STRENGTH. INTEGRITY.
EXPERTISE.
Perry & Haas does not offer any guarantee of
case results.
Past success in litigation does not guarantee success in any new or future
lawsuit.
Our web site describes some of the cases that the attorneys of Perry & Haas have worked on in the past.
Our description of those cases is summary in nature.
You should be aware that the results obtained in each of the cases we have
worked on was dependent on the particular facts of each case. The results of
other cases will differ based on the different facts involved.
