Defective Product Lawyer in Vancouver, WA | Harlan Law Firm
You’re entitled to expect your artificial hip implant to not break unexpectedly, your airbag to deploy as designed, and your cell phone to not spontaneously combust. When products fail as the result of defective design, you can be harmed without warning or fault of your own. Product liability claims are common, but challenging, as the defendant corporation will bring experienced defense counsel to represent it.
Harlan Law Firm handles product liability claims for people hurt in Vancouver, Clark County, throughout Southwest Washington, in the Portland metro, and in Idaho. Our defective product lawyers handle cases ranging from manufacturing flaws and defective packaging to dangerous chemicals and carcinogenic material. We bring decades of experience, and a deep understanding of product liability laws, to every case we take.
Call Harlan Law Firm Today for a Free Consultation: (360) 735-8200
Defective Product Cases Harlan Law Firm Handles
Our practice covers the full range of consumer, industrial, and medical products:
Automotive Defects
Seatbelt retractor failures, roof crush in rollovers, fuel system fires, defective tires, and failed braking or steering components that result in car accidents.
Tire Tread Separation and Blowouts
Age-related tread separation, improper repairs, and manufacturing flaws that result in a loss of control at speed.
Motorcycle and Helmet Component Failures
Defective brakes, frame welds, and helmet retention systems resulting in motorcycle accidents.
Defective Medical Devices
Issues arising during or after the implantation or use of surgical mesh, IVC filter, insulin pump, CPAP machine, or cardiac devices.
Pharmaceutical Injuries
Undisclosed side effects, contamination, and inadequate contraindication labeling claims.
Power Tools and Machinery
Missing guards, unexpected startup, inadequate emergency stops, and blade and bit failures.
Ladders, Scaffolding and Fall Protection
Collapses, rail failures, defective locking mechanisms, and harnesses that fail under load, often accompanying a premises liability claim.
Lithium Battery Fires and Thermal Runaway
Battery fires in E-bikes, scooters, power tool packs, phones, and vape devices resulting in severe burns and house fires.
Household Appliances and Electronics
Space heaters, pressure cookers, dryers, water heaters, and wiring failures causing burns, scalding, electrocution, and structural fires.
Children's Toys, Cribs, Car Seats and Juvenile Products
Small parts, lead, cadmium, magnet ingestion, strangulation risks in cords and slats, inclined sleepers, and car seats that fail in a crash.
Recreational and Sporting Equipment
Bicycles, firearms, ATVs, climbing gear, and exercise equipment.
Chemicals, Solvents and Toxic Exposure
Inadequate hazard labeling, defective respirators and protective equipment, and long-latency exposure claims.
Food Contamination and Adulteration
Listeria, salmonella, E. coli, undeclared allergens, and foreign objects.
A Note on Fatal Product Failures
When a defect kills someone, surviving family members may bring a wrongful death claim. Washington also permits a survival claim for the losses the decedent sustained before death. We handle these cases with the discretion those families are owed. If someone you love was fatally injured through the use of a defective product, speak with a defective product attorney as soon as possible.
Speak With a Defective Product Attorney in Vancouver, WA
Who Is Responsible for a Defective Product Injury?
Depending on the facts, responsible parties may include:
- The product manufacturer, the primary defendant in most cases.
- Component manufacturers: the battery cell maker, brake supplier, and other parts manufacturers.
- Product sellers and distributors are generally liable only for negligence. However, they may be treated as manufacturers if the manufacturer is insolvent, cannot be served in Washington or when the manufacturer sits offshore beyond practical reach.
- Private-label and "own brand" sellers, who take on manufacturer status by putting their name on someone else's product.
- Installers, rebuilders, and maintenance contractors, where the danger was introduced after manufacture.
- Online marketplaces, a platform's role in storing, shipping, and controlling the transaction can affect exposure.
Identifying every potential defendant early determines how much insurance and how many assets the case can actually reach. Some of these parties become unavailable once your statute of limitations period runs out, so we strongly recommend speaking with an attorney with experience in product liability cases as soon as you can.
What to Do If You Were Injured by a Defective Product
Keep the product. Don’t fix it or return it. The manufacturer or retailer often asks people to send it back for "inspection" or replacement. Keep the failed unit and any broken pieces.
Keep the packaging, manual, labels, and receipt. Model and lot numbers, date codes, and the warnings are all evidence.
Photograph everything immediately. Before anything is repaired, photograph the product from every angle, the failure point, the scene, your injuries, and the surroundings.
Get medical attention. Be specific about what happened. Tell the provider what product was involved and how it failed, so the mechanism appears in the chart from day one.
Write down what happened. What you were doing, how the product was being used, what you saw and heard, and who was present.
Save the purchase trail. Confirmations, emails, credit card records, and the seller's listing including screenshots of an online listing, which can change or vanish.
Report it, but carefully. Reporting to the CPSC, NHTSA, or FDA creates a useful public record. Talk to us first about how to do that without handing the defense a statement.
Call us early. Preservation letters, product retention, and scene inspection are all time-sensitive.
Contact a Defective Product Lawyer in Vancouver, WA
Damages in a Vancouver Product Liability Claim
Financial losses
- Emergency care, hospitalization
- Future procedures, implant removal
- Burn and wound care, reconstructive surgery, scar treatment
- Physical and occupational therapy
- Assistive equipment, prosthetics, home modifications
- In-home nursing and household help
- Wages lost during recovery, diminished future earning capacity
- Property damage, including a home lost to a product fire
Human losses
- Pain and suffering, during the injury and throughout treatment
- Emotional distress, PTSD, and anxiety following a fire, explosion, or amputation
- Disfigurement and permanent scarring
- Loss of independence and of previous activities
- Loss of consortium, and loss of companionship in fatal cases
Oregon allows punitive damages, and Washington permits them only in narrow circumstances (for instance, multistate involvement). Washington applies pure comparative fault, so a company's argument that you misused the product reduces recovery by your share rather than barring it. “Product misuse” arguments are frequently weaker than they sound, because foreseeable misuse is something the manufacturer was obligated to anticipate.
Wondering what your product liability claim is worth? Ask for a free, no obligation evaluation.
Product Liability Deadlines
Washington gives most product liability victims three years from the date the harm was discovered or reasonably should have been discovered. Additionally, Washington employs a 12-year rebuttable presumption under the Washington Product Liability Act (WPLA).
Oregon allows two (2) years from discovery, with an eight-year ultimate repose period for products first purchased for use or consumption. Idaho allows two (2) years, with its own ten-year useful safe life presumption. (Wrongful death claims carry their own timing rules; speak with a wrongful death attorney to learn more.)
If you believe you have experienced an injury as the result of a defective product, contact Harlan Law Firm as soon as you are able.
A Local Firm Serving Three States
Our clients come from Washington (Vancouver, Camas, Washougal, Battle Ground, Ridgefield, Longview, Kelso, Stevenson, White Salmon), as well as Oregon (Portland, Astoria, Seaside, Gresham, Beaverton, Tualatin, Wilsonville, Hillsboro and Sandy). We are proud to serve clients across the state of Idaho, as well.
Because Beau Harlan is licensed in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, your case stays in-house rather than being handed to another firm. This matters more in product work than in most practice areas, because the repose periods and punitive damages rules differ across states.
Defective Product Claims: Frequently Asked Questions
What are the different types of defective product claims?
Washington’s Product Liability Act determines the defect type, what must be proven, liability, and where evidence comes from. These generally fall into these broad categories:
- A manufacturing defect occurs when a product deviates from specifications or identical units.
- A design defect creates unreasonable risk through the product’s design.
- Failure to warn occurs when a properly designed and manufactured product lacks adequate warnings or instructions about known risks, including certain post-sale dangers.
What will a defective product attorney charge me?
Nothing up front, and no legal fee if the case recovers nothing. We work on contingency, with fees put in writing before any work begins. Product cases also carry substantial expert and investigation costs; we advance those rather than asking you to fund them. Our consultations carry no charge and no commitment.
What does a product liability lawyer do?
Our team will preserve the available evidence, map distribution chains and insurance and review CPSC/NHTSA complaints and FDA adverse-event reports to determine the extent of the problem. We then retain experts to expose the full extent of the harm caused. We handle every call from the company and its carrier and prepare every case for trial.
Do I have to prove the company was careless?
Not for a manufacturing defect. Washington imposes strict liability when a product deviates from design specifications or identical units and causes harm. Design defect and failure-to-warn claims instead assess risk, utility, and warning adequacy, without requiring proof of intent or recklessness.
The product was never recalled. Do I still have a case?
Yes. Most dangerous products on the market have never been recalled, and no recall is required to bring a product liability lawsuit. A recall is helpful evidence of notice and often of the defect itself, but its absence proves nothing about whether a product was safe.
I threw the product away. Is my case over?
Not necessarily, but it is harder. Other proof may still carry a case: identical exemplar units, photos, physical evidence of failure, prior incidents involving the same model, regulatory complaints, and expert design analysis. Call us. If the product or parts may still be in a garage, shop, or salvage yard, tell us early.
I was hurt at work by a machine. Can I file a claim, or does workers' comp cover it?
Both can apply. Washington's workers' compensation system generally bars suing your employer, but you can sue a third party: the company that made or maintained defective equipment. Those claims are a significant part of how injured workers recover more than wage replacement. L&I will typically assert a lien against the recovery, which is negotiable.
Can I sue a foreign manufacturer?
Sometimes directly, and often indirectly. Jurisdiction against overseas manufacturers can be difficult, so the importer and the retailer matter. Washington's statute allows a seller to be treated as the manufacturer when the manufacturer cannot be served in this state.
What if I bought it secondhand, or on an online marketplace?
You may still have a claim. With a product liability claim, there isn’t a requirement that you be the original purchaser or that you have a contractual relationship with the manufacturer. Online marketplace liability is an evolving area. The platform's role in the transaction affects the analysis.
What if I wasn't using the product exactly as intended?
Foreseeable misuse is the manufacturer's problem. Companies are expected to design and warn for how products are actually used. Genuine misuse is a defense, but the argument doesn’t always hold up. Washington's pure comparative fault rule also means partial responsibility reduces a recovery rather than eliminating it.
How much is a product liability case worth?
It depends on severity of injury, treatment and future care costs, income loss, strength of defect evidence, and defendants' resources. Anyone quoting a number before reviewing medical records and examining the product is guessing. Once we have all records, an experienced attorney will give you an honest range rather than a figure engineered to produce a signature.
Should I join a class action or mass tort?
It depends on your injuries. Class actions suit large numbers of small, similar economic losses. If you suffered serious or permanent injuries, an individual claim usually serves you better than being one number in an aggregate settlement grid.
Should I talk to the manufacturer's investigator?
No. Refer them to us. A company investigator's job is to establish that you misused the product, altered it, ignored a warning, or were already injured. Nothing you gain from that conversation outweighs what you can lose in it.
Will my case go to trial?
Most product cases resolve without one, but they are defended harder and longer than most injury claims, because manufacturers are protecting a product line rather than a single file. A firm genuinely prepared to try the case is what results in a reasonable offer.
My family member was killed by a defective product. What can we do?
Washington allows certain family members to bring a wrongful death claim, and a survival claim may also be available for the harm the person suffered before death. Deadlines and eligible claimants vary by state, so reach out promptly.
Tell Us What Happened
Product liability attorneys on both sides know these cases are won on evidence collected early, which is the one advantage still available to you. Call (360) 735-8200 to speak with a personal injury lawyer who handles defective product cases. We take cases in Vancouver, Portland, and in towns up and down both banks of the river. The review is free; you owe only if there is a recovery.