Dangerous Baby and Children’s Products

Although most parents carefully research the products they buy for their children for safety and durability, and despite the extensive federal safety regulations that apply to things like cribs, toys, car seats, and pajamas, even the most vigilant parents can find themselves victimized by an unsafe or defective product.

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As one of Pennsylvania’s leading products liability law firms, SMB has successfully represented parents and other caregivers whose children have been injured or killed by dangerous and defective furniture, equipment, toys, and other products intended for use by babies and children. We represent the victims of unsafe children’s products in all of the four major categories of products liability claims:

  • Design Defect: One or more of the product’s components or aspects of its design is faulty (anything from the product’s surface paint to its basic engineering) and causes injuries or property damage to babies or children.
  • Manufacturing Defect: An error or other mistake occurs in the product’s manufacturing process that causes injuries to babies or children (for example, a high chair’s hinges have gaps that trap and pinch small fingers; a toy has tiny parts that unexpectedly detach and pose a choking hazard).
  • Breach of Warranty: A product fails to comply with its express or implied warranties and that failure causes injuries to babies and children.
  • Failure to Warn: The product’s warnings, labels, or instructions are deficient and cause parents and caregivers to misuse the product and injure their children or others (for example, a product that can fall down steps omits necessary safety information on its packaging).

The statistics on injuries caused by products designed for children are shocking—to cite just one example:

  • Between 1990 and 2014, baby walkers generated more than 230,000 injuries to children 15 months or younger requiring emergency room treatment
  • Most baby walker injuries involved kids seven to 10 months old
  • More than 90 percent of baby walker injuries involved the child’s head and neck
  • 74 percent of baby walker injuries were caused by a fall down a set of stairs

Unmatched Experience

SMB has handled child product cases involving many of the most common injuries, including:

  • Traumatic brain injury
  • Poisoning and hazardous material exposure
  • Asphyxiation
  • Burns
  • Choking
  • Falls
  • Broken bones
  • Lacerations
  • Strangulation

SMB’s child product cases have involved:

  • Dangerous and age-inappropriate toys
  • Defective baby gear like car seats and walkers
  • Poorly designed baby furniture like cribs, dressers, and high chairs

Because manufacturers, distributors, and sellers all have a legal obligation to ensure the safety of their products, parents, and caregivers have every right to assume that the furniture, clothing, toys, and equipment that their children use every day have been properly designed and manufactured. When SMB takes a case, our lawyers want to know what happened and why. Aided by leading industry consultants, our exhaustive investigations include:

  • Reviewing product safety codes and regulations, industry standards, analogous products, patents, and design issues
  • Assessing previous safety tests
  • Uncovering records of all prior accidents and injuries
  • Reviewing all Consumer Product Safety Commission warnings and recall notices

Unmatched Compensation

The big corporations that make their profits from the sales of children’s products are responsible for ensuring those items are safe and marketed only to children of appropriate age. Any amount of unnecessary danger or hazard is too much. For parents and caregivers, there is no greater pain than seeing their children suffer. When a child is victimized by a negligent or careless manufacturer, distributor, or retailer, SMB can obtain a measure of justice by obtaining the compensation the injured child and their parents need and deserve. SMB casts a wide net for potential defendants in any products liability case it takes on. The designers, manufacturers, distributors, sellers (and anyone else in the chain of commerce) are potentially liable for injuries caused by poorly designed, fabricated, or labeled products. SMB’s attorneys work tirelessly to help parents receive all the compensation to which they are entitled—including payments for pain and suffering, emotional trauma, and past and future medical expenses. In the most egregious cases of negligence, the defendants can be required to pay punitive damages. If your child has been injured or killed, as a result of defective or unsafe equipment (like a car seat or baby walker), toys, furniture, or clothing, SMB is committed to obtaining all the results you need and deserve.

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