Manufacturers and retailers are legally responsible for ensuring the products they sell are safe for consumers. When a product is defective, poorly designed, or lacks proper warnings, it can lead to serious injuries. At Flahavan Law, we’ve handled product liability cases involving everything from faulty household items to dangerous machinery. If you’ve been injured by a defective product, we’re here to help you understand your rights and pursue the compensation you deserve.
Product Liability Lawyer in Rohnert Park
When something you thought you could count on fails massively, it’s an offence against everything you believed in. Power tools can break apart and take off fingers, children’s toys are full of potential choking hazards, appliances can ignite in the middle of the night, and large pieces of industrial equipment can crush limbs due to improperly installed safety guards. In seconds, lives are shattered by corporate decisions made thousands of miles away to cut costs, rush production, or hide known dangers.
Defective product cases are among the most complex in personal injury law. Manufacturers rarely admit fault voluntarily. The corporations employ teams made up of engineers, a product designer, and a corporate defense attorney to argue that the injured user “misused” the product or that the user’s injury was “unforeseeable”. If immediate legal action isn’t taken, a corporation can willfully destroy evidence such as internal testing reports, product recall notices, and employee communications, all at its discretion. So, it is vital to partner with a law office that can assist you in properly preserving all forms of evidence, demand the production of corporate records regarding the manufacturing process, and highlight the design flaws/safety issues being hidden by a corporation.
At Flahavan Law Offices in Santa Rosa, Brian Flahavan has spent more than twenty years holding the world’s largest manufacturers accountable when their defective or dangerously designed products injure Sonoma County residents. We have taken on Fortune 500 companies, medical device giants, automobile makers, and tool conglomerates, and forced them to pay millions for burn injuries, amputations, brain damage, paralysis, and death. We work with metallurgists, biomechanical engineers, fire investigators, and human-factors experts to prove exactly how and why a product failed.
If you or someone you love has been harmed by a defective product anywhere in Rohnert Park, Cotati, or the North Bay, call us today for a completely free, no-obligation consultation. You will never pay a dime unless we recover money for you.
Three Legal Theories That Make Manufacturers Pay
California recognizes three separate ways to prove a product is defective. We pursue all three simultaneously to maximize recovery:
- Design Defect – The product was unreasonably dangerous even when used exactly as intended (e.g., a ladder that collapses under normal weight, a space heater that ignites bedding, an e-cigarette that explodes).
- Manufacturing Defect – The product deviated from its intended design. It became dangerous (e.g., a single batch of contaminated medication, a vehicle with missing brake pads, a toy with sharp metal edges).
- Failure to Warn – The manufacturer knew or should have known of a risk but provided inadequate or hidden warnings (e.g., pharmaceutical side effects buried in fine print, power tools sold without kickback warnings, children’s clothing treated with toxic flame retardant).
Everyday Defective Products We Encounter in Rohnert Park
Consumer & Household Products
- Exploding e-cigarettes and lithium-ion batteries
- Space heaters and electric blankets that ignite
- Defective kitchen appliances (pressure cookers, air fryers, coffee makers)
- Children’s toys with choking hazards, lead paint, or rare-earth magnets
- Furniture that collapses (cribs, bunk beds, dressers)
- Lawn mowers and leaf blowers that throw debris or start fires
Power Tools & Equipment
- Table saws without flesh-detection braking (SawStop technology exists, but many brands still refuse to use it)
- Angle grinders with defective guards
- Nail guns that double-fire
- Chain saws with a poor chain-brake design
- Ladders and scaffolding that buckle under the rated weight
Industrial & Workplace Machinery
- Conveyor systems are missing emergency stops
- Presses and punch machines without proper guarding
- Forklifts with defective brakes or steering
- Agricultural equipment (grape harvesters, tractors) with rollover protection failures
Vehicles & Auto Parts
- Defective Takata airbags
- Tire tread separation
- Seatbelt failures
- Faulty ignition switches
- Sudden unintended acceleration
Medical Devices & Pharmaceuticals
- Hip and knee implants that disintegrate
- IVC blood-clot filters that migrate and puncture organs
- Defective mesh for hernia or pelvic repair
- Dangerous prescription drugs with hidden cardiac or suicide risks
Contact Flahavan Law Office
How Manufacturers and Their Insurers Fight Back
They have unlimited resources and a predictable playbook:
- Claim you misused or altered the product
- Blame the lack of maintenance or “operator error.”
- Point to tiny warning labels you supposedly ignored
- Hire armies of engineers to testify that the product was “state of the art.”
- Bury plaintiffs in millions of pages of discovery
- Offer insultingly low settlements before you know the full extent of your injuries
- Drag cases out for years, hoping you give up
We have beaten every tactic they throw at us.
What We Do From Day One to Build an Unbreakable Case
Product cases require immediate action because evidence disappears fast:
- Preserve the exact product in its failed state (never let anyone “repair” or discard it)
- Photograph and video the failure scene and all injuries
- Hire top engineers, biomechanists, and industry experts within days
- Subpoena internal corporate documents, emails, and testing records
- Search federal databases (CPSC, NHTSA, FDA) for prior complaints and recalls
- Depose design engineers and corporate safety officers under oath
- Locate other victims nationwide for pattern evidence
- Prepare museum-quality trial exhibits and 3D animations
- File suit early to trigger complete discovery of hidden documents
The Devastating Injuries Caused by Defective Products
- Amputations from power tools and machinery
- Third-degree burns over large body areas
- Traumatic brain injuries from collapsing furniture or vehicle rollovers
- Spinal cord damage and paralysis
- Internal organ perforation from failed medical devices
- Vision loss from exploding batteries
- Cancer and organ failure from toxic exposure
- Wrongful death when warnings were ignored or guards removed to save pennies
Many victims never return to work and require lifetime medical care costing millions.
Full Compensation Available Under California Law
Successful product liability plaintiffs recover:
- All past and future medical expenses
- Lost wages and loss of earning capacity
- Pain, suffering, and emotional distress (no arbitrary cap)
- Loss of consortium for spouses
- Cost of lifelong care and home modifications
- Punitive damages when the manufacturer knew of the danger and did nothing (California allows unlimited punitive awards in proper cases)
Settlements and verdicts in catastrophic product cases frequently range from $1 million to more than $100 million.
Special Rules for Children and Medical Devices
Children injured by defective toys or furniture receive higher awards because their injuries affect their lives for decades. Medical-device cases often become nationwide class actions or MDLs. Still, we protect your right to opt out and pursue full California damages rather than accepting pennies in a global settlement.
Why Local Representation Still Matters Against National Corporations
Even when the manufacturer is headquartered in Japan, Germany, or New York, your case will be heard in Sonoma County Superior Court or federal court in San Francisco. We know the local judges, the local rules, and the local juries who do not tolerate corporate greed. Decades of trying cases in these courtrooms give us credibility that out-of-town lawyers cannot match.
The Timeline of a Product Liability Lawsuit
- Immediate preservation and expert inspection
- Pre-suit demands and recall research
- Filing in Sonoma County Superior Court or federal court
- Aggressive discovery of internal corporate documents
- Dozens of depositions across the country
- Daubert hearings to qualify our experts
- Mediation with retired judges
- Trial preparation with focus groups and mock trials
- Verdict or final settlement
We manage every detail so you can focus on healing.
