Consumers have a reasonable expectation that the vehicles they ride in are safely designed and will have the necessary features to protect them in case of a crash. Unfortunately, millions of cars and car parts are recalled every year after their makers learn of dangerous defects that injured or killed people. If you suspect that a car accident you or a loved one was involved in may have been due to an automotive defect, you can reach out to a knowledgeable automotive defect attorney from Eisenberg, Rothweiler, Winkler, Eisenberg & Jeck, P.C. for help.
Our trial attorneys have secured over $1 billion in compensation for our deserving clients, including many multimillion-dollar awards in auto defect cases and the largest auto defect verdict in Pennsylvania state history. Contact us today to discuss your automotive defect claim with an experienced lawyer.
What Is an Auto Defect?
Automobiles consist of thousands of different components that work in tandem. If one or more parts do not work properly, a critical system or safety feature can fail, resulting in injury or death to the vehicle occupants. Auto manufacturers have a duty to safely design and manufacture vehicles. Auto defect cases arise when a vehicle’s unsafe design, manufacturing flaw, or absence or failure of necessary safety features cause a crash or fail to protect vehicle occupants from harm.
Automotive defects can be due to a manufacturing defect, which is a mistake during the manufacturing process and affects a certain number of vehicles or parts. In other situations, they are due to a design defect in which the vehicle or part is made according to specifications but has some inherent flaw in its design that makes it unsafe.
Common Types of Auto Defects
Some auto defects can cause crashes, such as:
- Defective brakes
- Tire blowouts or failure
- Rollovers
- Failure of a collision avoidance system
Other auto defects can cause accidents and injuries to be worse than they could have been. For example, a poor fuel tank design can result in post-collision fires. Other auto defects may fail to protect you in case of a crash, such as problems with:
- Airbag deployment
- Seat design
- Seatbelt failure
- Roof crush
- Child safety seats
- Door latch failures
An experienced automotive defect lawyercan investigate the crash and determine whether a defect caused the accident, made your injuries worse, or failed to adequately protect you.
Auto Defect Cases Our Firm Handles
For more than 40 years, Eisenberg, Rothweiler, Winkler, Eisenberg & Jeck, P.C. has been fighting for catastrophic injury victims and their families. In this time, we have achieved countless multimillion-dollar recoveries, many of which were in auto defect cases. We are one of only a few area law firms that has been able to secure favorable outcomes in high-stakes litigation against the auto industry. Some of the cases our award-winning attorneys have successfully handled involve:
- Defective seatbelts – Seatbelts are designed to save lives. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), seatbelts saved nearly 15,000 lives in one recent year. However, when seatbelts do not work as designed, the results can be devastating. In one tragic case, a man’s Acura Integra rolled over, and the seatbelt failed to prevent his head from hitting the vehicle’s roof. This impact caused the driver to suffer quadriplegia. The Eisenberg, Rothweiler, Winkler, Eisenberg & Jeck, P.C. team found evidence that the manufacturer was aware of the defect but failed to redesign the seatbelt or warn owners of the problem. Our hard work resulted in a history-making jury verdict of $55.3 million, which helped provide for our client’s lifelong care.
- Door latch failures – Door latch failures are not as common as some other types of auto defects, but they can be just as dangerous. The team at Eisenberg Rothweiler took on the case of an 8-year-old boy who was killed after he was ejected from a minivan struck by a tractor-trailer. The van’s lift gate latch failed upon impact, opening the vehicle’s rear gate and ejecting many of the occupants. The boy died in the accident. Our team was able to recover $6.8 million for the child’s family.
- Rollover accidents – Our team has taken on many rollover accident cases, which are often deadly or catastrophic. We recovered $6.5 million for a woman driving her SUV at 35 mph, which rolled over when another motorist crashed into her. She was ejected from the vehicle, resulting in serious injuries that required the surgical implantation of metal rods in her back. We also represented the family of a Philadelphia police officer who was killed in an SUV rollover. The jury awarded $3.5 million to them.
- Tire blowouts or failures – Tire manufacturers have a responsibility to make reasonably safe products. Unfortunately, defective auto tires are incredibly common, affecting millions of vehicles. When tire manufacturers prioritize their own profits over public safety, innocent individuals are needlessly injured and killed. Our firm also helped a family involved in a fatal tire failure accident recover $3.5 million.
- Defective Airbags – Airbags are installed in vehicles to improve safety in an accident. Airbags are designed to inflate on impact, keeping drivers and passengers from hitting the steering wheel, dashboard, or windows. Unfortunately, defective airbags can result in serious and even deadly injuries. Our firm has successfully represented a passenger in a vehicle whose airbag failed to deploy resulting in paralysis, and we recovered more than $11 million for her.
Our firm has successfully litigated cases against Honda, General Motors, Toyota, and other automakers. Auto manufacturers have nearly unlimited resources and teams of lawyers at their disposal to fight claims against them. The consequences of admitting their vehicles have dangerous defects are significant, so they often fight aggressively against these claims. For these reasons, it is critical that you have a formidable Philadelphia personal injury lawyer on your side who won’t back down from a challenge. Our firm knows how essential it is to prepare every case for trial because, with us, going to court isn’t an idle threat. It’s a strategic approach to pursue the most compensation for our deserving clients who were injured by vehicle designs that caused serious injury or death.
Contact an Experienced Auto Defect Lawyers for Help
At Eisenberg, Rothweiler, Winkler, Eisenberg & Jeck, P.C., our lawyers have hundreds of years of combined experience in personal injury law. Our highly regarded automotive defect lawyers know what it takes to secure a favorable outcome in a complex auto defect case, which is why many area attorneys refer these types of cases to us. They know we have the knowledge and resources to investigate the crash and pursue maximum compensation against all at-fault parties. Additionally, we have a network of experts in automotive design, biomechanics, crashworthiness, and accident reconstruction we can call upon to help support your claim.
When you need help for life’s toughest trials, call upon Eisenberg, Rothweiler, Winkler, Eisenberg & Jeck, P.C. You can trust us to fight for you and the justice you deserve. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you with your legal claim.
BUSINESS INFORMATION
Eisenberg, Rothweiler, Winkler, Eisenberg, & Jeck, P.C.
1634 Spruce St, Philadelphia, PA, 19103
Phone: (215) 585-2814
Email: info@erlegal.com
