CHILDREN'S PRODUCT LIABILITY: TOYS "R" US STEP2 PLAY SETS RECALL

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) just announced a recall of about 4,300 children's play sets sold exclusively at Toys“R”Us stores. The child safety and product liability attorneys at Champion Law are working to get the word out to parents to stop using any Step2 Play Up Gym play sets purchased at Toys "R" Us.

The defect that may lead to product liability focuses on a fall hazard - the triangular hangers (pictured to the right) that attach the swing’s ropes to the upper rail of the play set can break and cause children to fall. If you own one of these Step2 Play Up Gym play sets, stop using it immediately and click on this link to receive free replacement parts.

Manufacturers of all products - but especially children's products - need very thorough and careful processes for designing, testing and manufacturing their products. Sometimes, however, manufacturers don't do what is right and what the law requires them to do. We are here to level the playing field.

Former product liabilty defense attorney, Nate Bjerke, worked for manufactuers in product liability cases for over a decade. He learned the secrets to holding manufacturers responsible for personal injuries. If you have questions about the Step2 Play Up Gym, other children's products or safety or product liaibility in general, contact Nate at 651.766.5886 for a free consultation or visit Champion Law's web-site.

CHRYSLER AND FIAT ASK COURT FOR PERMISSION TO "DODGE" PRODUCT LIABILITY

In a predictable but disturbing move, lawyers for Fiat and Chrysler have asked a bankruptcy judg to allow Fiat to avoid taking responsibility for product liability claims arising from defective Chrysler vehicles if Fiat buys Chryser. As reported in the New York Times, Fiat says it would be "unfair" to require it to take on this responsiblity if it buys Chrysler's assets.

Unfair? What about the people who were injured or killed by defects in Chrysler cars, trucks and SUVs. There are all kinds of Chrysler vehicle defects that have injured and killed hundreds of people - defects like airbags, weak roofs on trucks and SUVs that rollover too easily, seat belt and seat back defects.

My firm, Champion Law LLC, represent two people in automotive defect product liability cases against Chrysler who suffered catastrophic injuries when the airbags in their vehicles failed to deploy in severe crashes. Pictures of the vehicles are shown above. If Fiat and Chrysler get their way, my clients and hundreds - if not thousands - of other innocent personal injury victims will be left uncompensated. Medical bills pile up and these people can't work. Unfair? I'd say so.

Think about this - under the plan that Chrysler and Fiat are proposing, banks and other investors would get paid and personal injury victims would not. This, in my view, is backwards. The people who invested money in Chrysler did so knowing that, like any investment, there are risks involved. Personal injury victims, on the other hand, did not sign up to be hurt or maimed and accept the risk of going uncompensated.

Fortunately, product liability attorneys and other consumer advocate groups have been advocating on behalf of victims injured by defective Chrysler cars, trucks and SUVs. If you have questions about Chryler bankruptcy or automotive defects in general, contact product liability attorney Nate Bjerke at 651.766.5886 or visit Champion Law's web-site. Nate spent more than a decade defending the automotive industry in product liabilty cases and knows how to get them to take responsibility for their mistakes.

CANNONDALE BICYCLE RECALL – 2009 Models Six 5, Six 6, Six Carbon 5 and Six Carbon 6 Bicycles

As product liability and safety lawyers, we think it is important to spread the word about defective products to help prevent personal injuries from happening in the first place.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) recently announced a voluntary recall of several defective Cannondale bicycles. The Cannondale bicycles included in this recall are the 2009 models Six 5, Six 6, Six Carbon 5 and Six Carbon 6 Bicycles. This recall affects about 1,300 defective bicycles.

The defect exists because the Cannondale bicycles fail to meet the federal safety standards. Spoke protector discs, required on bicycles to prevent the bicycle chain from interfering or suddenly stopping the wheel, are missing from these bicycles. The photographs above show this hazard.

If you have one of these defective Cannondale bikes, stop riding it and immediately contact any authorized Cannondale bicycle dealer for a free repair. For additional information, visit Cannondale’s Web site at http://www.cannondale.com/.

I haven't determined why Cannondale sold bicycles without this important safety component - but it appears to be a simple manufacturing defect or oversight. Regardless of the reason for the defect, product liabilit law in Minnesota, Wisconsin and most states hold manufacturers like Cannondale responsible for product liability regardless of why the product defect exists. If you have questions about the Cannondale recall or any othe issues concerning product liability, contact former product liability defense attorney, Nate Bjerke of Champion Law at 651.766.5886 or visit the firm's web-site.

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO REQUIRE SEATBELTS ON COMMERCIAL BUSES

The federal government had some good news for product liability and safety advocates like attorney Nate Bjerke and Champion Law last week when it told Congress that it will require commercial motor coaches to have safety belts for their passengers. This is a move that product liability lawyers and the National Transportation Safety Board have been advocating for years.


Unfortunately, it took several deaths and needless injuries to bring about this change. After analyzing the events surrounding a 2008 Utah bus rollover in which nine people died and 43 were injured (pictured above), the NTSB concluded that federal regulations just don't protect bus passengers like they should. The American Association for Justice then got involved and called for new rules.

Safety advocates, including the NTSB and the AAJ, reproached the NHTSA for acting too slowly in making much needed safety improvements on commercial buses. “The finding from the NTSB shows how the public is endangered when federal agencies drag their feet,” said Gerie Voss, the AAJ Director of Regulatory Affairs. “The Obama Administration must make updating transportation safety standards a priority.”

According to Ron Medford, the NHTSA’s acting administrator, commercial bus safety has become one of the agency’s top priorities. “I think it is true that the NHTSA was slow to act,” he told the Detroit News. Although nearly as many Americans travel on commercial buses as they do airplanes, buses are the least regulated motor vehicles under the NHTSA’s jurisdiction.

If you or a loved one has been injured in a commercial bus crash or just has questions about product liability or product safety. call attorney Nate Bjerke of Champion Law at 651.766.5886, or visit the firm's web-site.

CAR SEAT SAFETY IN MINNESOTA AND DEFECTIVE DESIGNN INFORMATION

Beginning July 1, 2009, Minnesota state law requires that children age 7 and under be restrained in an appropriate, federally approved car seat or booster seat, unless the child is 4'9" or taller. Car seats must be installed and used according to manufacturer's instructions.

Minnesota law also requires that infants under one year of age and weighing less than 20 pounds must ride in a rear-facing car seat. The state of Minnesota suggests that compliance with car seat safety law is a minimum safety standard, and suggests that children remain in a booster seat to 80 pounds and remain in the back seat until age 13.

Car seats are designed to protect a child from injury in the event of a car accident. The countless injuries and recalls over the past few decades seem to be evidence to the contrary. There are seven major manufacturers of child seats. Over the course of the last 10 years, the seven major manufacturers - Graco, Century, Cosco (Dorel), Evenflo, Fisher-Price, Kolcraft and Britax have recalled more than 11 million child safety seats for defects such as:

Child Seat Clip Defects

Child Seat Buckle Defects

Detachable Child Seat Defects

Improper Padding on Child Seats

Despite repeated design defects, these recalls are the results of the same types of defects. Unfortunately this is an indication of the failure to implement common safety standards by these manufacturers. Champion Law Office we are committed to protecting children by holding these companies accountable for this negligence. Nate Bjerke is a former products safety defense attorney who is now committed to representing injured victims. Let him share the secrets he has learned over the years in holding these companies accountable. Contact Champion Law at 651 or visit our website

NEW AND TOUGHER ROOF STRENGTH STANDARDS ENACTED TO IMPROVE OCCUPANT PROTECTION IN ROLLOVER CRASHES

In a move designed to help stop needless deaths and injuries in rollover crashes, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has adopted a new safety standards for both light vehicles (weighing up to 6,000 pounds) and heavier vehicles (weighing from 6,000 - 12,000 pounds) that will result in dramatically stronger vehicle roof structures.

Under the new standard, light vehicles weighing up to 6,000 pounds will have to withstand a force of three times the vehicle's weight on both sides of the vehicle's roof. The old standard required the roof to withstand a force of 1.5 times the vehicle's weight on only one side of the roof. Heavier vehicles, weighing from 6,000 to 10,000 pounds, will now have an actual roof safety standards they will have to meet - there is no such standard now. Their roofs will have to withstand a force equivalent to 1.5 times the vehicle's weight.

The phase-in period will start in September 2012 and must be completed for all vehicles within these weight ranges by the 2017 model year. This new standard should increase passenger protection during rollover crashes and we, like most product liability and safety advocates, are pleased with this development. But, we agree with the NHTSA that making roofs stronger is only way to help prevent injuries and deaths in rollover crashes. According to the NHTSA, about 10,000 people are killed in the US each year in rollover crashes, and roof strength was a factor in only 667 of those deaths. The NHTSA estimates that the new roof safety standards will prevent another 135 rollover fatalities each year.

The best way, of course, to prevent injuries and deaths in rollover crashes is to prevent vehicles from rolling over in the first place. The NHTSA says electronic stability control (ESC) can reduce rollover deaths by anywhere from 4,200 to 5,500 fatalities each year. Wearing your seat belts is another effective way to protect yourself in rollover crashes - the NHTSA estimates seat belts reduce fatalities in rollover crashes by as much as 80% in trucks and 74% in passenger cars, largely by reducing the likelihood of occupant ejection. In most instances, just meeting the minimum federal standards doesn't mean a manufacturer has done everything it should to make a vehicle safe in rollover crashes or any other kind of car accident.

When manufacturers sell vehicles that have defects in safety systems that cause personal injuries or death, the injury victim may be entitled to compensation under a product liability theory. If you have questions about rollover accidents or product liability in general, call the rollover accident attorneys at Champion Law LLC at 651.766.5886 or visit our web-site for more information