Injured by a Defective Appliance?

Space Heaters, Microwaves, Washers, Dryers, Refrigerators Can All Cause Harm if Defective

Video Transcript:

Brian Davis:

If it involves a serious injury, such as someone getting seriously burned or even electrocuted, then yeah. You need a lawyer.

Rob Rosenthal:

If you or a family member are injured because of a defective household appliance, do you know who to turn to for help? Well, we’re going to find out because that's what we're going to ask the lawyer today.

Hi again, everybody. Thanks for listening. I'm Rob Rosenthal with askthelawyers.com and my guest is North Carolina attorney Brian Davis. Brian, good to see again. Thanks for helping us out here.

Brian Davis:
Hey Rob. Glad to be here. Thank you.

Rob Rosenthal:

So I think it's pretty safe to say over the last year people have been at home more, cooking from home more, using small appliances and maybe now with the winter months using space heaters and that sort of thing; let's start out with what is your experience in these types of cases as a personal injury attorney?

Brian Davis:

I’ve handled quite a number of these sort of small appliance type cases, whether it's space heaters, microwaves, all the way up to and including washers and dryers, refrigerators. Sometimes these appliances that we have in our homes, sometimes they're defective and they can cause problems such as fires, smoke damage, stuff like that.

Rob Rosenthal:

If something caught on fire or there’s smoke damage, that sort of thing, some people might just deal with their homeowner's insurance and think that will take care of everything. Is this the kind of thing that somebody needs an attorney like yourself to help them with?

Brian Davis:

It sort of depends. If it's a minor issue and no one is hurt and it's fairly limited to minor property damage, then yeah; you can generally turn that into homeowners and they'll take care of it and pay it and move on. But if it involves a serious injury such as someone getting seriously burned or even electrocuted, then you need a lawyer.

Rob Rosenthal:

So what is the step then? What's the process? If someone's burned, let's take that as an example, I'm assuming the first thing you’ll say is get medical help, but then what?

Brian Davis:

Sure, first thing is obviously get to the hospital to get the care you need. Second thing is to preserve the product. You've got to preserve the product, because without the product there's no way to prove what happened; there's no way to prove what caused the fire or the short or whatever the issue is, so you've got to maintain the product. You have to preserve it. You can't alter it or change it or monkey with it. You just need to basically, if you can, leave it in place. Sometimes the fire department gets called, sometimes there's water damage everywhere, so it sort of depends on what the situation is, but you have to preserve the product, and if that means that the fire department has to come in and they've watered everything down to put out the fire, then they may actually move the product

If it's been moved and you need to preserve it, put it in a box, close the box, tape it up, and keep it in a safe place until you can get your lawyer hired and then sort of move forward at that point.

Rob Rosenthal:

So the idea, I would think some people might think while the person is in the hospital we'll clean up the scene, we'll get rid of the device, and that'll help, but that's what you're saying is not helpful.

Brian Davis:

No, that hurts. That's messing up your case. If you don't have the product, you don't have a case.

Rob Rosenthal:

I'm assuming as with most of these kinds of things, lots of pictures would be helpful?

Brian Davis:

Yeah. The more pictures the better. The sooner the better. So let's say the fire is out, start taking pictures then if you can. It doesn't have to be a ton of pictures, but just some pictures showing what's going on, where things are, and what has happened.

Rob Rosenthal:

So then, when somebody comes to you in this kind of a case, Brian, is it a challenge to figure out who the responsible party is? Because there's the manufacturer, their sellers, there's the retailer. Is that a challenge?

Brian Davis:

It can be, but that's what we do. We dig into the case; we investigate it. We figure out who the manufacturer is and we find out where the product was purchased. Now, ideally, if you still have the box that the product came in, that's like a best-case scenario. If you just happen to still have the receipt that you got when you purchased the product, that is also ideal, but we can handle cases even when there's no box and no receipt. There are ways to figure things out. We know what to do.

Rob Rosenthal:

I would imagine some of these products may also have a history of being a problem, right?

Brian Davis:

Yeah. So one of the things we do in every case is we check the website for the Consumer Product Safety Commission, that's the federal government agency that tracks defective products and puts out recalls or warnings. So yeah, that's part of what we do in our investigation; if there's a history with a particular product then that just really makes the case a lot stronger.

Rob Rosenthal:

What's the process—and maybe give us a shortened version—of determining whether it’s a defective product or user error. How do you decide?

Brian Davis:

Well, user error is usually what we hear from the other side, from the manufacturer in response to our claim. A lot of times they will claim that there's a user issue, that the consumer did not use the product correctly. Let's just take, for example, a microwave. If you read the instructions on a microwave, they say, “Don't put anything on top of the microwave.” This means don't stack your plates or your dishes or your bowls or your pots and pans on top of the microwave. And there's a reason for that. Microwaves aren't designed to be load-bearing. If you're putting a bunch of stuff on top of it, that can cause problems, so that would be an example of user error. The key is to read the instructions for the product, use it correctly, and then user error will not be an issue if there's a problem.

Rob Rosenthal:

It seems like a lot of household appliances, especially small appliances, come with all kinds of warning labels on them or on the cord. Does that automatically mean the manufacturer is not liable? Can they say, “Hey, there was a warning label”?

Brian Davis:

No, absolutely not. In fact, sometimes the warning labels communicate wrong information; sometimes they don't actually communicate the way it should be used. Sometimes they're mislabeled or the warnings are inaccurate and worded improperly. So a lot of times warnings, that's actually part of a claim that proper warnings were not given, that the warnings that were given were incorrect, so the fact that something has a warning label on it really doesn’t make or break the case.

Rob Rosenthal:

So you've had a lot of experience with these kinds of cases, Brian. Do you have some helpful advice for people when it comes to using small appliances or space heaters, especially at this time of year? What's your advice?

Brian Davis:

Yeah, well, you mentioned space heaters. The biggest thing about space heaters is don't put them close to anything that's flammable or could catch on fire. Don't put them close to curtains. Don't put them close to your bed or a piece of furniture. Make sure that there is generally, they say at least six feet all the way around the space heater so that it's not going to get hot enough to catch anything on fire. But in general, the thing that you really should keep in the back of your head when you're using a small appliance is don't leave it unattended. Don't use a small appliance and leave your home and be gone for several hours. If you're going to use something, even a crock pot—they say, you turn your crock pot on and come back at the end of the day and your meal is ready; well, that's great, but if there's a problem and the thing starts smoking and you're not there, you may end up with a fire. So the basic idea is to stay with your appliance.

Rob Rosenthal:

Super helpful information as always. Brian, thank you so much for making some time to answer our questions.

Brian Davis:

My pleasure. Thanks.

Rob Rosenthal:

That's going to do it for this episode of Ask of the Lawyer. My guest has been North Carolina attorney Brian Davis. Remember, if you want the very best information or you want to make sure you're able to choose a lawyer that lawyers choose, go to askthelawyers.com first. Thanks for watching, everybody. I'm Rob Rosenthal with AskTheLawyers™.

Disclaimer: This video is for informational purposes only. In some states, this video may be deemed Attorney Advertising. The choice of lawyer is an important decision that should not be based solely on advertisements.