If a defective product injured you, you can bring a claim against the company that designed, made, distributed, or sold it. Under Illinois strict liability law, you do not have to prove that the company was careless. You have to prove the product was unreasonably dangerous and that it caused your harm. Most people hurt by a product they trusted never learn that distinction exists.
If you are in pain, out of work, and getting nowhere with a manufacturer that will not return your calls, that frustration is warranted. A Chicago defective products lawyer at Herbert Rosner Connelly Law Firm can review what happened.
Call 312-655-7660 for a free case evaluation.
Product cases are not ordinary injury cases. You are opposite a manufacturer with in-house engineers, outside counsel, and every incentive to argue you misused the product.
Herbert Rosner Connelly Law Firm is led by three founding partners: Daniel Q. Herbert, Adam R. Rosner, and Thomas M. Connelly. Our results include a $50 million settlement for a railroad worker seriously injured on the job, a $9 million premises liability settlement, and an $8.1 million settlement against a Chicago hospital. We take these cases on a contingency fee basis, and our phones are answered around the clock.
The same investigative approach runs through every personal injury and workers' compensation matter we take on.
No city or state agency publishes a separate count of defective product injuries in Chicago. Federal data is the best available measure, and it is substantial.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission oversees more than 15,000 categories of consumer products, and it estimates that product-related deaths, injuries, and property damage cost the nation roughly one trillion dollars each year. Its National Electronic Injury Surveillance System samples hospital emergency departments nationwide to estimate how many product-related injuries are treated each year.
Recalls move through three channels: the CPSC for consumer goods, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for vehicles and parts, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for drugs and devices. A recall is useful evidence, but not a requirement. You can pursue a claim over a product that was never recalled.
Space heaters, lithium-ion batteries, power tools, ladders, and appliances cause a large share of household product injuries. The same hazards appear at work, where defective tools and machinery on a job site cause crush and amputation injuries.
Airbags that fail to deploy, seat belts that release on impact, tires that separate, and failing brake or steering components can turn a survivable crash into a catastrophic one. A claim against the parts maker can proceed alongside one against the other driver.
Implants, surgical mesh, joint replacements, and prescription medications can cause harm months or years after a doctor recommends them. A device or drug claim runs against the manufacturer and is distinct from a malpractice claim against a physician.
There is no formula. Anyone quoting a number before reviewing your records and examining the product is guessing.
When a defective product kills someone, the representative of the estate may bring a wrongful death claim under the Illinois Wrongful Death Act, 740 ILCS 180/2, for the losses surviving family members have suffered.
In most cases, yes. Being partly at fault does not end your claim in Illinois.
The Illinois comparative fault statute bars recovery only when your own fault is more than 50% of the proximate cause of the injury. At 50% or less, you still recover, with damages reduced in proportion to your share. The rule applies to strict product liability claims exactly as it does to negligence claims.
Manufacturers routinely argue you used the product in a way it was never intended to be used, or that you understood the risk and proceeded anyway. Both are defenses the manufacturer must plead and prove, not conclusions an adjuster reaches on its own.
Product failures tend to produce severe harm: burns from fires and explosions, amputations from unguarded machinery, head and spinal damage when something gives way. We account for the full arc of a catastrophic injury, including care you are likely to need years from now, rather than building a demand around bills that have already arrived.
Illinois recognizes three ways a product can be unreasonably dangerous.
The design was sound, but something went wrong in production. One batch, unit, or weld departed from what the company intended, and it reached you.
Every unit is built exactly as intended, and the intention itself is dangerous. A product that tips, overheats, or omits a guard a feasible, safer design would have included here.
The product performs as designed but carries a risk the company knew of and did not disclose, or its warnings were too vague to protect an ordinary user.
Illinois strict liability reaches the whole chain of distribution, not the manufacturer alone. That matters when the manufacturer is overseas, dissolved, or judgment-proof.
Under 735 ILCS 5/2-621, a non-manufacturing seller can be dismissed from a strict liability claim by filing an affidavit correctly identifying the manufacturer. That dismissal does not hold if the seller exercised significant control over the design, manufacture, or warnings.
It can also be vacated if the manufacturer cannot be sued in Illinois or the limitations period has run against it. Identifying the right defendants early is one of the most consequential decisions in a product case.
Most product claims are pleaded in the alternative. Strict liability looks at the product's condition, negligence at the company's conduct, and breach of warranty at the promises made about it.
For a design defect, Illinois allows proof of unreasonable danger under either of two tests. The product either failed to perform as safely as an ordinary consumer would expect, or its risks outweighed its benefits as designed.
Most Illinois injury lawsuits must be filed within two years of when the claim accrues.
A separate outer limit applies. Under the product liability statute of repose, a strict liability claim must be brought within 12 years of first sale, lease, or delivery by a seller. A 10-year limit runs from delivery to the initial user. Whichever expires earlier controls. Exceptions apply to products altered after sale and to injuries that could not reasonably have been discovered. An older product can place a claim out of reach even when the two-year clock has barely started.
A wrongful death action carries its own two-year period, running from the date of death rather than the date of injury.
Knowing the law is one thing. Getting a manufacturer to preserve a product, produce its complaint history, and take your claim seriously is another, and that is the difference counsel makes. We can demand preservation of evidence, identify every party in the chain of distribution, and keep your deadlines from quietly expiring while you focus on recovering.
Herbert Rosner Connelly Law Firm represents injured people throughout Chicago and Cook County from our office at 65 W Jackson Blvd in the Loop. To speak with a Chicago defective products lawyer about what happened to you, call us today for a free case evaluation.
