Products Liability

Products Liability
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McGlinchey’s Products Liability team’s litigation experience ranges from single-plaintiff lawsuits to regional and national mass torts and class actions at both the trial and appellate levels.

Working in jurisdictions throughout the United States, we blend proficiency in technical subjects with extensive trial experience to achieve successful outcomes.

Our products liability team represents Global 500 manufacturers, distributors, and insurers in litigation involving: 

  • Serious personal injuries and wrongful death
  • Economic loss
  • Defect claims

For decades, we have defended manufacturers in products liability matters by striving to master technically complex issues and then boiling them down for juror consumption. To assist juror understanding, we consistently lead in developing multimedia presentations. We leverage trusted relationships with technical experts who are leaders in their fields, providing us – and our clients – with the knowledge base necessary to successfully defend sometimes complex and nuanced claims.

We take seriously our role as business advisor. In addition to counseling our clients through litigation, we take the long view on our clients’ businesses, evaluating exposure and advising on federal regulatory compliance, instruction manuals, technical training, warning labels, and other measures to minimize future liability threats. 

We have obtained defense verdicts and favorable settlements in cases involving:

  • airbag design and function
  • automotive design (including electronic stability systems, glazing systems, post-collision fuel-fed fires, restraint systems, and electrical door locks)
  • aviation accidents (fixed- and rotary-wing)
  • chemical plant and refinery explosions
  • commercial truck and tractor accidents
  • heavy equipment (including construction, agricultural, container handling, mining, and other equipment)
  • elevators and escalators
  • household appliances
  • hydraulic systems
  • industrial and manufacturing plants
  • industrial and marine engine failures
  • lead paint and other toxic substances
  • medical devices
  • motorcycle design
  • plumbing supplies
  • power turbines
  • high voltage transmission control systems

We have defended products liability claims against a vast universe of products, including:

  • agricultural equipment
  • airbags
  • aircraft (fixed-wing and rotary)
  • asbestos
  • automobiles (OEM)
  • aviation equipment
  • buses
  • chemical plant equipment
  • commercial vehicles
  • construction equipment
  • consumer appliances
  • consumer products
  • diesel engines
  • diesel-electric locomotives
  • diesel generators
  • drywall
  • elevators and escalators
  • exercise equipment
  • food manufacturing equipment
  • healthcare equipment
  • heavy equipment
  • hospital equipment
  • hydraulic systems
  • industrial equipment
  • lead paint
  • marine engines and products
  • medical devices
  • mining equipment
  • motorcycles (OEM)
  • natural gas engines
  • paper mill equipment
  • pharmaceuticals
  • pleasure craft
  • plumbing supplies
  • power control systems
  • powertrain applications
  • power turbines
  • refinery equipment
  • specialty vehicles
  • tires and tire rims
  • tractors
  • transmission systems
  • trucks
  • watercraft
  • woodworking and other power tools

Featured Client Stories - How McGlinchey Gives You More

What we See on the Horizon

Contact your McGlinchey Products Liability team for our latest insights about the following:

Autonomous vehicles and other technology changes. Our success representing clients in products liability cases rests on our ability to master relevant technologies and make them understandable to judges and juries. Our lawyers closely follow technology developments in our client’s industries in order to anticipate new legal and factual issues affecting the advice we provide to clients.

Data privacy and products liability. The intersection of data privacy and liability is one which the plaintiffs’ bar continuously seeks to exploit. Through our work with the Products Liability Advisory Counsel (PLAC), the Defense Research Institute, and other relevant organizations, our products liability lawyers monitor the latest trends in claims and arguments advanced by plaintiffs’ lawyers. 

Our Work

  • Firm Attorneys Defending Mercedes in Louisiana

    Law360 reported on June 23, 2014, that plaintiffs in Dugas v. Mercedes-Benz USA LLC et al, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, “urged a Louisiana federal judge to certify a class action accusing Mercedes-Benz USA of making and selling allegedly defective engines in cars that risked consumers’ safety and requiredMore

  • Creative Lawyering Surmounts a Unique Challenge in Collision Trial

    Where we started: Our client, a multinational automobile manufacturer, was sued by the family of a teenage girl who died in an accident involving a vehicle made by the manufacturer. Beyond the facts of the case – a rear-end collision and post-collision fire – the case was complicated by the fact that the girl was theMore

  • Quick and Complex Cross-Border Work Led to Successful Mediation

    Where we started: Our client, a European manufacturer, faced personal injury and wrongful death litigation arising from an accident involving a large piece of container handling equipment at the Port of New Orleans. The client called the mobile phone of one of our product liability lawyers asking if we could help locate a forklift expert.More

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Insights

  • Looking Ahead of the Curve: The Future of Commercial-Transportation Litigation

    Member Tarush Anand will present on a panel, " Looking Ahead of the Curve: The Future of Commercial-Transportation Litigation," at the Claims and Litigation Management Alliance (CLM) Annual Conference in Tampa on Thursday, March 30, 2023.

  • The First 48: Immediate Steps After an Accident

    Member Allyson Byrd (New Orleans) will present on "The First 48: Immediate Steps After an Accident" for the Wilbert Manufacturers Association's St. Petersburg Midterm Meeting, April 16-18, in St. Pete Beach, Florida.

  • Handling Difficult Removals with Success

    Member Tarush Anand (Houston) will co-present on a panel, "Handling Difficult Removals with Success," at the Federation of Defense & Corporate Counsel (FDCC) Winter Meeting in Nashville, Tennessee, on Tuesday, February 21, 2023. The panel will discuss various topics, including recent case law, artful pleadings and manipulation by Plaintiff's counsel, the problem of the later-served defendant, joinder and consent, and waiver issues.

  • Managing Case Costs for All Sizes of Litigation

    Member Allyson Byrd (New Orleans) will co-present "Managing Case Costs for All Sizes of Litigation" at ALM Property Casualty 360 on February 28, 2023.

  • McGlinchey Adds 8 Litigation Associates Across 5 Offices

    McGlinchey is pleased to announce the addition of eight new associates in its Financial Services Litigation and Enterprise Litigation & Investigations practice groups in the last two months of 2022. The litigators join the firm’s Birmingham, Dallas, Cleveland, Houston, and New Orleans offices.

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