Instant Pot and Bella Pressure Cooker Class Action Lawsuits

Defective Product Lawyer Explains How to Join

Video Transcript: 

George McLaughlin: 

The pressure cooker opens, the stuff that comes out causes a scalding burn injury. Not just a little bit of a burn, a scalding burn.

Tom Mustin: 

What do people need to know about pressure cookers and class-action lawsuits? We're gonna talk to attorney George McLaughlin about that on today's Ask the Lawyer. George, thank you for joining us.

George McLaughlin: 

Thank you for having me.

Tom Mustin: 

Great to have you. So you filed two class-action lawsuits regarding pressure cookers. Can you give us an overview of what those lawsuits allege?

George McLaughlin: 

In each of these lawsuits, the problem is that these pressure cookers have lids that can be opened when the contents are under pressure. And when that happens, the contents erupt out, usually all over the front of the person who's trying to open the lid, and they get seriously burned.

Tom Mustin: 

And you're saying, "seriously burned." How serious are these injuries we're talking about here?

George McLaughlin: 

Well, when you cook something in a pressure cooker, the contents heat to a temperature above the temperature at which water normally boils. So we're looking at temperatures higher than 212 degrees Fahrenheit. And when the pressure cooker opens, the stuff that comes out causes a scalding burn injury. Not just a little bit of a burn, a scalding burn.

Tom Mustin: 

Well, what about user error? What if that's involved here? What if people just aren't following directions and they're burned by the pressure cooker?

George McLaughlin: 

Well, anybody using a pressure cooker knows it's common sense that you don't try to open it when it's still under pressure, and the user manual has always warned against that. But there are times when the customer mistakenly believes that, yeah, the pressure is gone and they go to open it. Well, the industry standards require that a user must not be able to open the lid of a pressure cooker while its contents are still under pressure with anything less than 100 pounds of rotational force. That means that by twisting the lid, you're doing the equivalent of lifting 100-pound weight off the floor. That's a lot of force. It's just something that a person in a kitchen going to open it wouldn't be able to do. The standard requires that if the customer makes a mistake, they must not be able to open that lid and be injured.

Tom Mustin: 

Are there certain kinds of pressure cookers you've seen that have more defects than others? And how do you know if your pressure cooker is safe?

George McLaughlin: 

Well, the two pressure cooker class-action lawsuits that I'm involved in, one is against the company that makes a product called the Instant Pot, and the other is against a company named Sensio. Their product is called the Bella Pressure Cooker. There's really no way to know if you in fact have one of the pressure cookers that could open under pressure. You certainly don't want to test it to see, "Oh, geez, can I open mine under pressure?" There are ways we can tell based on date codes and serial numbers whether the product is in a range that we're contending the defective products were manufactured. But that's something that if we do have a recall of these products, the companies are required to tell the customers, "Okay, if you bought a product in this timeframe that has a certain serial number or a certain date code, that's the defective product." We would like to get the companies involved here to do that.

Tom Mustin: 

So why haven't these products been recalled if some of them are known to be defective?

George McLaughlin: 

Well, some of them have. In the instance of the Sunbeam Crock-Pot pressure cooker, there was a recall last year of the lids of those products, and Sunbeam would send the owner of the product a new lid which they apparently redesigned. So there have been some recalls. There's also have been prior successful class-actions. A company that makes a pressure cooker called the TriStar Pressure Cooker, they were the subject of a class-action which came to a settlement resolution for the members of that class a couple of years ago. But not all of the pressure cooker companies acknowledge that they have a defective product, and therefore we have to take them to court to make our proof and hopefully get them to responsibly address the consumers who have defective products.

Tom Mustin: 

So, George, what are the eligibility requirements to join your class-action lawsuit against these pressure cooker companies?

George McLaughlin: 

Well, you have to have the product. [chuckle] Anybody that has a Instant Pot or a Bella Pressure Cooker, I would be happy to take their call or answer their email, and let them know if it appears they have a product that may be eligible to be a part of the class. To do that, I merely need the serial number or a photograph of the label that's on the back of the product, and then I should be able to tell, "Yes" or "No", is this a product that is covered by the complaints that we filed in the class-actions.

Tom Mustin: 

Well, George, a lot of great information here. We really appreciate you joining us today.

George McLaughlin: 

Well, thank you for having me.

Tom Mustin: 

And that's gonna do it for this episode of Ask the Lawyer. My guest has been attorney George McLaughlin. If you want to ask George a question about your situation, call the number on the screen. Thanks for watching. I'm Tom Mustin for Ask the Lawyers.

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