Fort Lauderdale Defective Product Lawyer
There is a great deal to be said for trusting your instincts or your gut feelings; it makes no difference which you prefer to call this, just that you do pay attention to it. Have you ever just looked at someone’s picture in the newspaper or online or on TV and had the feeling that you don’t want to be anywhere near them for some reason that you could not reasonably explain? This, to a certain extent, is what we are talking about here.
It is trusting those feelings that are fleeting yet oh so valuable when it comes to keeping yourself out of trouble. How many times have you just had a “bad feeling” about someone that you have seen or just met and found out that the person in question was, indeed, bad news? On the converse side of this, how many times have you seen someone and really felt at home with them and just knew that you could trust them very easily? This is also what we are referring to here as well. It is not just the “bad” or uneasy feelings that you need to pay attention to, but those that tell you that someone is a good person to be around and/or work with.
When it comes to hiring an attorney that you really can trust to handle whatever legal matter you are bringing to them, your first impression is always pretty much right on the money as far as how reliable and trustworthy that particular lawyer and their staff really are. If you have the sneaking suspicion or gut feeling that this particular lawyer will not be the one that will represent you anf your interests to the best of their ability then you would be better off leaving their office.
If, on the other hand, you have a VERY good feeling about the attorney from meeting with him/her and seeing how they are with you, then you might want to find out how the attorney deals with retainer fees and deposits as well as how they go about billing you for their services. For the most part you are going to find out that most attorneys will indeed work with you in terms of paying their fees and explaining how they do things in the course of their practice. Asking questions is always a good way to gage how well they will meet your needs and how you will be able to work with them.
Law Offices of Robert Rubenstein, P.A.
Miami & Fort Lauderdale
Lawyer Practice Areas:
Car, Motorcycle, and Auto Accidents
Premises Liability and Falls
Wrongful Death
Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect
Medical Malpractice
Vehicle Rollovers and Tire Defects
Product Liability and Defective Products
Ship and Boating Accidents
Airplane Accidents
Bicycle Accidents
Birth Injuries
Construction Site Injuries
Traumatic Head & Brain Injuries
Pedestrian Accidents
Swimming Pool Injuries
Trucking Accidents
Electrocution Accidents
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As a Miramar auto product defects attorney, I have been watching the Toyota recall with some interest. Toyota and Lexus are recalling 3.8 million late-model vehicles, their biggest U.S. recall, because of reports that problems with the floor mats have caused accelerators to “stick” and vehicles to accelerate uncontrollably. The initial reports on the recall cited only a handful of cases. But according to a Nov. 8 article in the Los Angeles Times, more than 1,000 owners have complained to federal safety regulators since 2001 about sudden acceleration -- and regulators have dismissed or excluded most of those complaints. The Times suggested that regulators eliminated so many complaints that they may have eliminated any chance to stop the problem earlier.
When the accelerator pedal sticks open, the newspaper said, vehicles can reach three-figure speeds. The open throttle makes some braking systems useless, and the problem can be exacerbated by newer vehicle systems that make neutral gear hard to find and require a three-second delay before shutdown. According to the Times, the defect has caused 19 deaths and many more injuries, as vehicles accelerate uncontrollably into objects or over cliffs and bridges. Among the dead were California Highway Patrolman Mark Saylor and his wife, daughter and brother-in-law. Saylor was trained in handling high-speed vehicles, but that training didn’t help him when a loaner vehicle from his dealer went out of control east of San Diego, crashing over an embankment at over 100 mph.
Thanks to complaints from owners, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has undertaken eight investigations of the problem in the past seven years. But according to the Times, many complaints never got considered at all because regulators found reasons to exclude them. For example, the agency received 37 complaints about unintended acceleration in Lexus vehicles, but threw out 36 of those complaints. Complaints saying brakes didn’t stop the vehicles were thrown out because officials believed brakes could always stop a vehicle. In its reports to the NHTSA, Toyota also excluded reports of sudden acceleration lasting more than a few seconds, saying this was impossible. Exclusions for reasons like this allowed the NHTSA to close the Lexus investigation because it “found no data indicating the existence of a deficit trend.” In all, five investigations were closed for lack of enough complaints.
As a Cooper City automotive defect attorney, I am glad that the vehicles are being recalled now, regardless of what happened before. But if we learn that Toyota did cover up the unintended acceleration defect -- through carelessness or intentional deceit -- it has put itself in a very bad position in the lawsuits that are sure to follow. Under the law, manufacturers are legally responsible for all of the injuries their defective products cause, even if they didn’t know about the problems. If evidence shows that they did know about the problem and actively took steps to cover it up, they will be just as liable -- but the juries in their cases will be rightly shocked and horrified. In my experience, this tends to lead to very large recoveries for the people suing -- in this case, the people who were permanently injured or lost loved ones to defective Toyota and Lexus vehicles.
