Dangerous Child Products

Parents naturally seek to protect their children from harm, but many common household products are dangerous and do more harm than good. Many of these products are designed to actually protect your children but end up injuring them instead. If a dangerous or defective product has injured your child, it's fair to seek compensation for these damages.

Car seats and booster seats are intended to protect your child in the event of a collision. However, defective seats can strangle or choke your child. Some seats fail altogether, sending your child flying around the car after a crash.

There are many different potential defects that can render car and booster seats dangerous, including:

• Defective latches that fail in an accident or are impossible to undo after a crash
• Weak shells that crack or separate from the rest of the car seat
• Flammable materials that catch on fire
• Inadequate pelvic protection, which causes your child to slide out of the seat
• Malfunctioning handles
• Unclear instructions explaining how to install the seat

These and other flaws can cause a car or booster seat to fail in the critical moments when you need it most. Many children suffer serious head, nerve, and spinal cord injuries in these easily preventable accidents.

Unstable high chairs can crash to the ground, causing broken bones and injuries to your child’s head. High chairs typically fail because of poor design related to the legs, which are not sufficiently stable to keep the chair upright. Children can become agitated while sitting in a high chair, banging their hands and twisting around to see behind them. A poorly designed or manufactured chair can collapse or tip over under this movement.

According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, toys cause about 240,000 trips to the emergency room for injuries each year. Injuries included lacerations, abrasions, contusions, and injuries to the head and face. Of those affected, about 35% were younger than five years old, and another 34% were between the ages of five and 11. In 2016, seven children died in toy-related deaths.

In addition to falls and collisions, hazardous toys can cause many injuries, including:

• Choking. Small pieces of a toy can fall off, which young children can swallow and choke on.
• Burn injuries. Electrical toys might catch on fire, causing burns.
• Poisoning. If a toy contains lead paint, young children might be poisoned if they eat paint chips off the toy.

Some toys might be safe for older children but too dangerous for young children. Remember to check the packaging to identify the appropriate age range. If the packaging omits this critical information, then the toy can be defective as well.

Every month, manufacturers recall articles of children’s clothing for creating hazards. Concerned parents can visit the federal government’s recall website to keep up with the latest recalls. In 2018, we have already seen the following recalls:

• Carter’s recalled its Children’s Cardigan Sets because a toggle button could detach, causing a choking hazard.
• Lemur Group recalled it’s PL Sleep Children’s Sleepwear because it failed to satisfy federal flammability standards.
• Tea Collection recalled 3,800 of its Children’s Rompers because the snaps near the collar could detach, posing a choking hazard.

If your child is injured by a piece of clothing, remember not to throw the article away. Instead, your lawyer will want to see the piece to better understand what made it defective and how it injured your child.

Children’s products are usually unreasonably dangerous because of a defect, such as:

• Design defect. Something about how the product is designed has made it dangerous. For example, the person who designed a high chair might have placed the legs too close together, rendering the product unstable. With a design defect, you tend to see problems crop up across the entire product line.
• Manufacturing defect. The product’s design is not dangerous, but the way this particular item was manufactured has made it dangerous. For example, insufficient glue might have been used on your child’s toy, causing pieces to break off. Other toys made had enough glue, so the problem is with how your particular product was put together.
• Inadequate warnings or labels. Some products need instructions or warnings so that consumers can use them safely. For example, a car seat should come with instructions on how to install the seat properly. Some children's toys should have warnings telling parents that the toy is not appropriate for children under the age of five. Where instructions or warnings are inadequate or missing altogether, the product can become unreasonably dangerous.

Under Georgia law, manufacturers are strictly liable for any injuries caused by defective products. This means the manufacturer cannot defend by claiming that they used sufficient care when designing or manufacturing the product. It is enough that they sold a defective product and that it injured someone. Of course, your child must have been using the product reasonably.

Injured victims can also sue more than just the manufacturer. You can sue anyone who moved the product along the stream of commerce, including wholesalers, distributors, and retailers.

Identifying who to sue and what evidence you need is time-consuming and confusing. Parents with injured children should focus on their child’s recovery and leave the legal work to an attorney experienced in product liability law. At Slappey & Sadd, we can work to build your case the right way so that your child can receive the maximum compensation for:

• Medical expenses
• Pain and suffering
• Emotional distress

By bringing a lawsuit, you not only receive badly needed compensation, but you urge manufacturers to increase the safety of their products, thus benefiting society at large.

At Slappey & Sadd, we represent children injured by consumer products. Our lawyers understand how to build a case against the manufacturer the right way and are available to answer any questions you have. Please reach out to us today to schedule your free consultation or by calling 404-255-6677. You can also contact us online.