‘Ready-Made Lawsuit’: Lawyers Discuss Why Some Product Recalls Lead to Litigation and Others Don’t
Recent recalls of benzene-laced sunscreen and defective breathing machines have spurred massive interest among the plaintiffs bar, with dozens of lawsuits already filed. But when Peloton recalled its treadmills, there were hardly any lawsuits.
So, when exactly does a recall lead to lawsuits?
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But injury cases take time and the expense of hiring experts. Class actions, on the other hand, usually focus on the economic harm to consumers who purchased the product.
When a recall recommendation comes from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, which has increasingly been aggressive in its enforcement measures, it results in “almost a ready-made lawsuit,” said Terry Henry, a partner at Blank Rome in Philadelphia who counsels companies on recalls.
“If you don’t have a lot of injured plaintiffs because of a recall, you certainly have a lot of people who bought a product who could have a consumer fraud lawsuit,” he said. “You really can’t head it off.”
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“Ready-Made Lawsuit: Lawyers Discuss Why Some Product Recalls Lead to Litigation and Others Don’t,” by Amanda Bronstad was published in The Legal Intelligencer on August 30, 2021.