Millions of children’s toys, cribs, playpens, and other children’s products are sold each year. Parents who purchase these items trust that they have been exhaustively tested to meet rigorous safety standards. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Companies who manufacture defective toys, cribs, and playpens need to be held to the highest standards of quality and safety because the end users of those products are our most vulnerable population: children. The moment that manufacturers do not adhere to these regulations is when product liability lawsuits are created.
Laws Regarding Toy Safety
A product liability attorney has exposure to the regulations and shortcomings of toy and playpen manufacturing, so they are an excellent resource when product liability lawsuits arise. Because of the sheer volume of products on the market, the product liability attorney takes on the time-consuming task of researching all components leading to the error and potential lawsuit.
When children are injured as a result of defective toys or defective playpens, their injuries often lead to a product liability claim. A successful product liability attorney will build a case that not only compensates injured victims, but also serves as a balance that requires the manufacturer of the defective product to fully realize the costs that their defective product has placed on society. Their negligently produced products can lead to severe injury or death of children, followed by a product liability lawsuit.
The overarching danger of defective toys is that they do not discriminate: all children are potential victims. However, certain age groups face heightened threats from particular types of products. Defective playpens or defective cribs have been a serious concern for infants. Toys that contain choking hazards are potentially harmful to toddlers while older kids generally have been in danger from motorized toys.
How Do Injuries Happen?
Defects in a toy or playpen can come about from a number of different, and often hidden, causes. Some toys contain lead paint while others can be disassembled or taken apart by children, unbeknownst to parents. Still, other toys are of a size that can cause injury to children who use them. Each particular defect requires an experienced and knowledgeable product liability attorney to uncover their source, which could include flaws in the design, construction with dangerous materials like lead and cadmium, or a failure to warn or supervise.
In some cases, instead of a product liability lawsuit, a defective toy or defective playpen will lead to a product recall. Unfortunately, this happens frequently. The Consumer Product Safety Commission’s (CPSC) website is a good resource for information about current product recalls. The CPSC also maintains statistics that provide a look into the defective toy and defective playpen threat.
- In 2022, there were an estimated 209,500 toy-related injuries treated in U.S. hospital emergency departments. The annual average of estimated toy-related injuries from 2006-2008 is 229,600.
- According to the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) 2022 Toy-Related Deaths and Injuries Annual Report, of the 235,300 estimated toy-related injuries treated in emergency rooms across the country, an estimated 159,500 (or 76%) occurred to children less than 14 years of age, while an estimated 79,700 (38%) were to children younger than 4 years of age.
Source: United States Consumer Product Safety Commission
We Are Ready to Help
Clifford Law Offices has knowledgeable defective toy, defective crib and defective playpen attorneys who are experienced in product liability lawsuits. In one case, Clifford Law Offices represented Sharon Henry, the mother of a child injured by a Magnetix toy set when he swallowed the pill-sized magnets. The powerful magnets connected together in his intestines and perforated his bowel. Doctors told Henry that if she had waited 24 more hours her son would have died. Further reading on the importance of child-safety in toy manufacturing is available here in an article written by Robert A. Clifford titled, “Toy Industry Needs to Stop Playing Around with Child Safety”. The product liability attorneys from Clifford Law Offices have a number of successes in this complex area of litigation. Please call the defective toy attorneys in Chicago at Clifford Law Offices.
