Many Florida businesses stay afloat by making a variety of goods that they later sell for a profit. Some of these businesses may send their products directly to the stores or to distributers who will then see to it that they get on to the retail market. In other cases, the business may make a part that will later be sold to another business that will then use it to build their own product.
While the idea behind doing so is to make money, there is some legal risk to selling a product to the general public or even being involved in the making of a part that will go in to a consumer product.
Specifically, under Florida’s law, a manufacturer of a product can be held strictly liable in a product liability case to pay compensation to victims should it turn out that the company’s products are unsafe. The company may wind up paying compensation to thousands of victims even if the company took all reasonable steps to make sure its product was safe.
Not only can a serious product liability case damage a business in of itself, it can also attract the attention of government regulators who may wind up pursuing a recall of the company’s product, which would in turn cost thousands and even millions of dollars in lost profit and other costs.
In addition to defending the underlying case and handling a government investigation, a business faced with a product liability lawsuit will have a number of legal issues to navigate, any one of which could lead to business litigation. For instance, insurance coverage may be an issue, as could be contracts and other agreements with business affiliates which may shift the burden of paying for the lawsuit. A skilled commercial attorney can help a Tallahassee, Florida business navigate all of these issues.