When you take a medication, you place your trust in the companies that design, package, and sell these drugs. Unfortunately, pharmaceutical companies sometimes fail to ensure that their products are safe, resulting in serious harm to consumers. A DuBois dangerous drugs lawyer could help if a defective pharmaceutical has injured you or a loved one.
Drug companies hire experienced legal teams to fight on their behalf. A seasoned personal injury attorney could advocate for your rights and help seek recovery in a case that may involve many parties.
There are generally three types of claims used to show that a drug was defective under state law. The first type of contention is that the manufacturer produced a defective medication. Manufacturing errors occur during the production process, such as a tainted batch, adding the wrong ingredient, or attaching an incorrect label. The plaintiff’s injury must stem from the manufacturing error for this claim to be viable. An injured party may also file a claim against a drug company if there is something inherently dangerous about the chemical makeup of the medication. This is called a design defect, and an experienced attorney may build this case by arguing that a defendant used a more dangerous material to make a drug and failed to disclose this to the FDA.
The second claim a plaintiff can raise is that the drug company failed to disclose dangerous side effects.
Third, a plaintiff may argue that a party falsely marketed the drug. Failure to warn about potential adverse side effects or how to safely use the drug may give rise to liability. In these cases, there may be nothing wrong with the drug physically or chemically, but the consumer suffers damages due to a lack of important information.
These claims also may involve a misrepresentation as to the characteristics or benefits of the drug. Responsibility could lie with the manufacturer, the physician who prescribed it, or the pharmacist who dispensed it, depending on where the deceptive advertising or inadequate instruction came from.
Sometimes, the FDA fails to catch harmful drugs, and the substance is administered to many patients or consumers. In these situations, courts could consolidate these cases claiming the same harm into class actions. A DuBois attorney could help a plaintiff join a class of plaintiffs who suffered from the same dangerous medication.
A plaintiff could recover several types of damages in a civil suit. In DuBois, a lawyer could seek compensation for bodily injury, medical expenses, lost income, loss of earning capacity, and pain and suffering on behalf of the claimant in the dangerous drugs case.
A plaintiff may be able to seek damages for not only medical treatment they have already received but also future care. Lost wages are those that the plaintiff was unable to collect due to an absence from work to recover. If impairment is likely to last into the future, a DuBois dangerous drugs attorney could calculate a claimant’s expected loss of earning capacity to present-day value. This figure is estimated based on age, years left in the workforce, skills, and work experience.
Unsafe drugs can cause serious complications for consumers. Yet, it is difficult to take legal action for these losses without knowledge and experience as to how these cases work.
Fortunately, a DuBois dangerous drugs lawyer could evaluate your case and advocate for your rights in court. Speak to a Marcus & Mack lawyer today to learn more about your legal options.
