Product Liability
Davis & Wright advises and represents clients in many matters relating to the liability risks associated with products and raw materials, ranging from automobiles to construction materials to manufacturing equipment. Davis & Wright has extensive experience representing health care providers in lawsuits involving medical devices, pharmaceuticals and blood products as well as the negligent spread of various infectious diseases.
The firm’s Product Liability Practice Group as considerable experience defending defective design, manufacturing, and warning cases with respect to both commercial and passenger vehicles, including both the complete vehicles and various integrated parts.
Services that the Product Liability Practice Group provides include:
- Acting as national or regional coordinating counsel to companies facing complex multiple liability claims that arise out of the sale or use of products or substances
- Acting as primary defense counsel and/or trial counsel in product liability lawsuits
- Providing counsel concerning the product liability implications of potential mergers, acquisitions and corporate reorganizations
- Providing advice and counsel regarding the appropriate strategy for structuring operations and relationships with affiliates to minimize product liability risks
- Drafting contract and indemnity agreements to protect the company as it enters joint ventures, partnerships, mergers, acquisitions, sales and other transactions
- Providing Industry Compliance Reviews
- Performing Risk Management Reviews and identifying ways to reduce lawsuits to improve the company’s ability to defend future lawsuits through improvements in product testing, warnings, and record keeping
- Analyzing the scope of insurance coverage for clients confronting product liability claims
- Advising clients on the impact of dissolution and/or bankruptcy upon pending a potential future products liability claims, and representing clients in litigation that raises such claims
Representative Cases
- Represented national prosthesis company and prosthetist in personal injury lawsuit alleging that a prosthetic leg was negligently assembled by the prosthetist resulting in injury to the plaintiff. The case proceeded to a jury trial before settling on the second day of the trail after the cross-examination of the plaintiff’s expert witness.
- Represented manufacturer of replacement knee joint in cases alleging that the joint was negligently manufactured allowing the joint to separate during use. Through close cooperation with national counsel for the manufacturer, Davis & Wright was able to settle each case before expending significant dollars in discovery. With Davis & Wright’s assistance, the manufacturer was able to evaluate its exposure quickly, accepted responsibility for the defect and quickly responded to all claims that were established to be a result of the failure
- Represented an Austin physician in a significant drug liability case in with the physician was sued along with the manufacturer of a pharmaceutical product for significant injuries resulting from a stroke allegedly caused by the product. The court granted a Motion for Summary Judgment for the physician and dismissed him from the lawsuit without any payment
- Represented a Wisconsin-based window and door manufacturer in a multi-million-dollar construction defect case in which the plaintiffs alleged the client’s windows were defective and led to water intrusion and substantial mold growth. The case involved multiple parties and numerous experts with competing causation theories, disagreements on testing methodologies, and numerous Daubert/Robinson challenges. Davis & Wright successfully challenged several of the plaintiff’s experts. The experts were excluded, and the case was settled prior to trial on favorable terms.