We can help you claim
compensation following an accident
illness or injury - nationwide
Call: 0800 10 757 95
A 16% increase in product recalls has been announced following research by Reynolds Porter Chamberlain (RPC).
There were 166 recalls between January and October 2005, 23 up on the previous year. The greatest increase was in pharmaceutical products, which saw a product recall increase of 250%.
The main reason for this is thought to be that the public are more readily turning to making a personal injury claim should they be injured by an unsafe product. Mark Kendall, a solicitor with RPC, said: “This dramatic rise in product recalls is caused, in part, by the increasingly litigious environment in which businesses now operate. Whereas product recalls were once seen as a last resort, the fear of becoming involved in any crippling compensation claims is leading firms to recall products where there is only the slightest chance of there being a liability.”
A personal injury claim following a faulty product can be extremely costly for a company, and a recall is seen as the cheaper, safer option. However, where a product recall is not absolutely essential for health and safety reasons, the cost of the recall may not be covered by company insurance.
Some of the product recalls in 2005 include Boots Smile Toothbrushes with faulty heads which could cause choking, a Yuhai fibre optic lamp that could cause electric shocks, and an Argus kettle with a faulty base which could result in burns.
One of the most well-known US product liability cases in 2005 was the successful awarding of $253m (£147m) to the widow of a man who had died following the use of the painkiller Vioxx. However, subsequent Vioxx compensation claims made in America were unsuccessful, and funding is proving a problem for a group action UK Vioxx personal injury claim.
