Defective Product Claims in Phoenix
A product you trusted to work as intended hurt you instead. Now you are dealing with medical bills and a manufacturer that has no interest in taking responsibility. At Gallagher & Kennedy, our Phoenix product liability attorneys represent people injured by defective vehicles, medical devices, medications, and consumer products.
Arizona law holds manufacturers and sellers to a strict standard when a defective product causes harm. Proving that in practice takes real investigation, engineering analysis, and a firm willing to take on companies with their own legal teams. Request a free case evaluation to find out whether a product liability lawyer can help with your claim.
Types of Product Defects Our Attorneys Investigate
A defective product lawyer generally looks at a case through one of three lenses. A design defect means the product was built exactly as intended, but the design itself was unreasonably dangerous. A vehicle with a center of gravity so high it is prone to rollovers is a classic example. A manufacturing defect means something went wrong during production that made an otherwise safe design dangerous. A contaminated food product or a mechanical part assembled out of spec both fall into this category. A marketing or warning defect means the product carried a risk the manufacturer failed to adequately disclose. A medication with a serious side effect buried in fine print, or a children's toy sold without a choking hazard label appropriate for its size, both fall into this category. Many of the cases we handle involve more than one of these categories at once. Identifying which one applies shapes the entire legal strategy.
Products Involved in the Cases Our Phoenix Product Liability Lawyers Handle
Product liability claims can arise from nearly any consumer good. Certain categories account for most of the serious injury cases we see in the Phoenix area. Defective auto parts are among the most common, including cases involving defective brakes, faulty airbags, and tire tread separation. We also handle claims involving unwanted acceleration and other auto defect cases. In these, a mechanical failure, not driver error, caused the crash.
Outside the auto space, we represent clients injured by defective medical devices, dangerous medications, and household products ranging from appliances to children's toys. A prescription medication itself may have been contaminated, mislabeled, or sold without adequate warning. That claim can run alongside or separate from a medication error claim against a prescriber or pharmacy. The manufacturer and the healthcare provider can each bear independent liability for the same injury.
The injuries in these cases vary as widely as the products themselves. We have handled claims involving internal organ damage from a child swallowing a defective magnet toy, serious burns from an exploding battery or e-cigarette, and traumatic amputations from equipment missing a required safety guard. A defective product does not have to be exotic or expensive to cause catastrophic harm. Some of the most serious cases we see involve everyday household items that failed in a way no consumer could have anticipated.
Why Phoenix Product Liability Cases Carry Their Own Challenges
Phoenix's heat and highway conditions play a real role in certain product defect cases. Sustained high pavement temperatures accelerate the breakdown of rubber compounds and adhesive bonds inside tires. That is part of why tread separation claims are more common here than in cooler climates. Vehicles driven daily on Loop 101, I-10, and I-17 log more highway hours in extreme heat than the same vehicles would in most other states. That matters when a defect's failure point is temperature-dependent.
Our attorneys have taken on major manufacturers directly in cases involving tread separation and rollover accidents, including litigation against several of the largest tire makers in the country. That experience matters in negotiation. Insurance companies and corporate defense teams evaluate cases differently when they know a firm has the resources and the trial record to see a case through. They settle for less when they know a firm will only accept a fair number.
How Arizona’s Strict Liability Law Works
Arizona has applied strict products liability standards for decades, and that framework still shapes how these cases work today. Arizona law defines a product liability action broadly. It covers harm caused by a product's design, manufacture, packaging, labeling, or a failure to warn about a known danger1. Under strict liability, we generally do not have to prove the manufacturer was careless. We have to prove the product was defective when it left the manufacturer's control and that the defect caused your injury.
Why Several Parties Can Share Liability
Strict liability applies to every party in the chain of distribution that put the defective product into commerce. That can include the manufacturer, a component part maker, a distributor, or the retailer that sold it. One detail that surprises a lot of clients: Arizona does not apply joint and several liability the way some states do. Each defendant is generally responsible only for its own share of fault, determined by the jury. That means identifying every liable party at the outset matters enormously. Leaving one out can leave real compensation on the table rather than something another defendant simply absorbs.
Building Your Phoenix Product Liability Case
Preserving the Product as Evidence
The failed product is usually the single most important piece of evidence in your case. If it gets repaired, discarded, or returned to the manufacturer before an attorney is involved, the claim can be seriously weakened. We move quickly to secure the product. We also send preservation letters to every party who might have an interest in inspecting or disposing of it.
Working With Engineering and Reconstruction Experts
Product defects are rarely obvious to the naked eye. A steel belt separating inside a tire, a circuit board flaw inside a medical device, or a design flaw in a braking system usually requires a qualified engineer to identify and explain. We work with experts who can examine the failed product and determine the defect type. They connect that defect to the crash or injury in terms a jury can follow. Their analysis addresses the questions a defense expert will inevitably raise. Was this a manufacturing defect or a maintenance issue? Did the defect exist before the product left the factory?
Finding Prior Complaints and Recall History
One thing an experienced product liability attorney checks early that a general practice lawyer might not: whether other people have reported the same problem. The Consumer Product Safety Commission's SaferProducts.gov database and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's complaint and recall systems often turn up prior incidents involving the same product line. Evidence that a manufacturer knew about a defect and sold the product anyway is often the single most persuasive fact in a negotiation. It can also open the door to punitive damages.
Compensation Available in a Phoenix Product Liability Claim
Depending on the severity of your injury, compensation may include current and future medical expenses, lost wages, and reduced earning capacity if you cannot return to the same work. It can also include pain and suffering tied to the physical and emotional impact of the injury. In cases involving intentional concealment of a known defect, such as a manufacturer that suppressed complaint data or delayed a recall, Arizona courts may also award punitive damages. These come on top of compensatory losses.
Bringing a claim costs nothing upfront. We take product liability cases on a contingency fee basis. You owe no attorney's fees unless we recover compensation for you, and we advance the costs of expert witnesses and investigation along the way.
Deadlines That Apply to Your Product Liability Claim
Arizona generally gives injured people two years from the date of injury, or from when the injury was reasonably discovered, to file a product liability claim2. There is also a less commonly known limit worth understanding. Arizona law generally bars product liability claims filed more than twelve years after the product was first sold, regardless of when the injury occurred, except in cases involving negligence or an express warranty. That twelve-year window rarely comes up with newer products. It matters more than people expect with older vehicles, machinery, and household goods still in use well past a decade of service.
Why Gallagher & Kennedy for Your Phoenix Product Liability Case
A Track Record Recognized in Product Liability Specifically
Product liability litigation is a distinct specialty, not a general personal injury add-on. One of our shareholders, Shannon Clark, has been named Phoenix Lawyer of the Year for Products Liability Litigation three times, in 2022, 2024, and 2026, and has held a Best Lawyers in America recognition specifically in Product Liability Litigation for Plaintiffs since 2020. That kind of recognition comes from sustained results in this exact area of law, not a broad injury practice that occasionally takes a product case.
Real Results Against Major Manufacturers
Our attorneys have represented dozens of clients in tread separation and rollover cases against Ford Motor Company, Bridgestone, Firestone, Goodyear, Michelin, Cooper Tire, and most other major tire manufacturers. In one case involving fuel-fed fires in Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptors, our team's work helped push Ford to spend $350,000,000 improving the safety of that vehicle line. These are not settlements reached by threatening litigation. They are the product of attorneys who have actually taken these cases through the process to a result.
Litigation That Changes How Products Are Made
Some of our product liability work has gone beyond compensation for an individual client. Our attorneys have helped force voluntary recalls of five different defective products through litigation, direct engagement with regulatory agencies, and coordination with investigative journalists. When a case reveals a defect that puts more than one person at risk, we treat that as part of the job, not an afterthought.
Our litigation in product liability cases has resulted in nationwide product recalls and changes to how manufacturers test and design their products. When negotiations stall, we are prepared to take a case to trial rather than settle for less than it is worth. We take product liability cases on a contingency fee basis, so pursuing accountability from a well-funded manufacturer costs you nothing upfront.
Moving Forward After a Defective Product Injury
A product injury is different from most personal injury claims. You are not just dealing with an insurance adjuster. You are often up against a manufacturer with its own legal department and a strong incentive to argue the product performed exactly as intended. That is not a fight to take on without help.
Our role is to investigate the defect and preserve the evidence. We identify every party who shares responsibility for what happened to you, and we build the case while you focus on your recovery.
When you are ready to talk about what happened, reach out to our office. We will explain exactly how a product liability claim would work in your situation.