Defective Products: Smoke Detector Recall | Shapiro, Washburn & Sharp

Smoke alarms are a key part of a home fire escape plan. When there is a fire, smoke spreads fast. Working smoke alarms give you early warning so you can get outside quickly and should be an integral part of every household.  A consumer recall was just announced for some 141,000 smoke detectors manufactured by ESL and Interlogic brands.  The problem is that radio frequency interference can cause the smoke detectors to fail to alert consumers of a fire.  The smoke detectors were made for professional installation and used primarily in commercial buildings, schools, hotels/motels, apartments, dormitories and homes as part of the fire alarm system.

{Click here to read more information on the recall}

Thousands of consumers are seriously injured or killed every year by defective and faulty products that have not been properly manufactured, inspected or tested to insure that the products will not cause serious injuries or even loss of life. Imagine a parent’s horror at being told their son or daughter suffered serious burns in their dorm room because of a defective smoke detector.  When a family member is permanently injured or even killed due to defective or dangerous product, the person injured or their family member often contacts our experienced faulty product injury lawyers to seek justice.

Without defective product injury attorneys over a century of lawsuits that have forced manufacturers to inspect, produce and sell safe products would not exist.  Many safety measures have only been implemented because of the economic penalty of major lawsuits and multimillion verdicts returned by juries against manufacturers who insisted that their products were not unsafe.  Some companies put profit ahead of safety and refuse to recall dangerous products until forced to do so. 

The danger with this recall is that many commercial building which installed these smoke detectors such as hotels and college dorms may be slow to replace the product or not be informed of the recall.  Often times when pursuing a defective product claim the defendant will argue against the victims claim.  They will likely argue that the injury was not caused by the defect. They will probably claim the injury was your fault, and you should not recover any compensation for your own negligence.

 

CT