A Bradenton defective products lawyer represents people injured by dangerous products, including vehicles and parts, e-bike batteries, appliances, children's products, furniture, tools, and medical devices. Florida law allows claims against manufacturers, distributors, and sellers when a product was defectively designed, defectively made, or sold without adequate warnings. Have our 30 years of experience in personal injury go to work for you. No fees or costs unless we get results.
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Heintz Law represents injured people and families in Bradenton, Palmetto, Ellenton, Lakewood Ranch, Manatee County, and the Suncoast in product liability cases in state and federal court. Founding Partner Steven E. Heintz and our Bradenton product liability attorneys handle these claims as part of the firm's personal injury lawyer practice. Product cases are built on the product itself, so what happens to the product in the first days after an injury often shapes the entire case.
If a product injured you, get medical care, then keep the product exactly as it is. Do not repair it, throw it away, return it to the store, or send it to the manufacturer. Save the packaging, manuals, receipts, and photos, and write down how the product was being used when it failed.
Manufacturers and insurers sometimes offer to "inspect" or replace a failed product. Once the product leaves your hands, the most important evidence in the case may be lost or changed.
Product liability is the area of law that holds manufacturers, distributors, and sellers responsible for injuries caused by defective products. In Florida, an injured person can bring claims for strict liability, negligence, and breach of warranty, and the right theory depends on what went wrong with the product and why.
Florida recognizes several legal paths:
Strict products liability is often the strongest path, because the injured person does not have to prove what the company knew or intended. The case turns on whether the product was defective and whether the defect caused the injury.
Florida recognizes three main types of product defects: design defects, where the product's design itself is unreasonably dangerous; manufacturing defects, where a product departs from its intended design during production; and warning defects, where the product lacks adequate instructions or warnings about its risks.
Many cases involve more than one type of defect. A battery that overheats may involve both a design defect and inadequate warnings about charging.
Our Bradenton product liability attorneys handle cases involving defective vehicles and parts, airbags and seatbelts, tires, e-bike and scooter batteries, power tools and lawn equipment, home appliances, furniture tip-overs, children's products, boats and watercraft equipment, construction equipment, and medical devices.
Under Florida law, responsibility for a defective product can extend through the chain of distribution, including the manufacturer of the finished product, makers of component parts, distributors, wholesalers, importers, and retailers. Identifying every company in that chain matters because each may carry separate insurance.
Products bought online or made overseas can raise questions about which company is responsible and whether it can be brought into a Florida court. Tracing the product's path early is part of every product investigation.
In a Florida strict products liability case, the injured person generally must prove the product was defective, the defect existed when the product left the defendant's control, and the defect caused the injury. Proof usually requires an engineering analysis of the product, its design, and how it failed.
Florida law also gives weight to government safety standards. When a product complied with an applicable federal or state safety standard, Florida presumes the product was not defective, but the injured person can overcome that presumption with evidence. When a product did not comply with an applicable standard, Florida presumes it was defective.
Proof often depends on the outside professionals we retain, such as mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, fire cause and origin investigators, human factors specialists, and metallurgists.
Manufacturers commonly argue the product was misused, altered, poorly maintained, or used in a way they could not foresee, that the warnings were adequate, that the product met government standards, or that something other than the product caused the injury. Florida's comparative fault rules may also reduce or bar recovery.
Florida uses modified comparative fault. An injured person found more than 50 percent at fault recovers nothing, and a person found 50 percent or less at fault recovers damages reduced by their share. A manufacturer may still be responsible for misuse it could reasonably foresee, such as a child climbing a dresser.
An injured person may recover economic damages, including past and future medical expenses, lost income, and lost earning capacity, and non-economic damages for pain and suffering, mental anguish, scarring, disability, and loss of enjoyment of life. Punitive damages may be available in limited cases involving intentional misconduct or gross negligence.
Factors that affect value include the severity and permanence of the injury, the medical record, the evidence of defect, what the company knew and when, and readiness for trial.
Florida generally allows four years to file a strict product liability claim, running from when the injury and its connection to the product were or should have been discovered. Negligence claims arising on or after March 24, 2023, generally have two years, and wrongful death claims have two years.
Florida also has a statute of repose, an outer limit that can bar a claim regardless of discovery. For most products, a claim cannot be brought for harm caused by use of the product more than 12 years after it was first delivered to a buyer. Exceptions include:
Because different claims carry different deadlines, the safest plan is to treat the earliest one as the real deadline. Our Florida statute of limitations page explains these rules further.
A recall does not automatically prove a product caused your injury, but it can be strong evidence that the manufacturer knew about a defect. Recalls are issued through agencies such as the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and the Food and Drug Administration.
A product can also be defective without ever being recalled. Many recalls come only after injuries are reported. Checking recall databases, consumer complaint reports, and federal safety records is part of investigating any product case.
Yes. Florida workers' compensation generally prevents a lawsuit against your own employer, but it does not prevent a product liability claim against the company that made or sold a defective machine, tool, scaffold, or piece of equipment. Those third-party claims can recover damages workers' compensation does not pay.
Workers' compensation does not pay for pain and suffering, and it pays only part of lost wages. A product claim against a manufacturer can fill those gaps. Our article on what to do after a construction site injury explains how these claims fit together.
When a defective product causes a death, Florida law allows a wrongful death claim brought by the personal representative of the estate on behalf of surviving family members. Survivors may recover for lost support, companionship, guidance, and their own grief, and the estate may recover medical and funeral expenses.
Our wrongful death page explains who can bring the claim and what Florida law allows.
Our Bradenton product liability attorneys handle each case in stages, from first contact through evidence preservation, engineering investigation, pre-suit negotiation, discovery, mediation, trial, and appeal. Every file is prepared from the start as if a jury will hear it, because the manufacturer's view of trial risk shapes how it values the claim.
Steven E. Heintz is the Founding Partner of Heintz Law, a Bradenton firm that represents only injured people and their families. His approach is careful preparation, aggressive advocacy where the facts call for it, and trial readiness from the first conference. Settlement on the right number is welcome. Settlement that shortchanges a client is not.
Defective product cases are handled on a contingency fee, so there is no fee unless there is a recovery. Injuries from dangerous conditions rather than products are covered on our premises liability page.
If you or a family member was seriously hurt by a defective product in Bradenton, Palmetto, Ellenton, Lakewood Ranch, or anywhere in Manatee County or the surrounding counties, Heintz Law can help preserve the product, investigate what went wrong, and explain your options under Florida law.
Have our 30 years of experience in personal injury go to work for you. No fees or costs unless we get results.
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