Improving Consumer Safety
Where state and federal regulators have been unable or unwilling to do the job, consumer attorneys and the civil justice system have forced corporations to make their products safer and take dangerous products off the market.

Some of the biggest news stories of recent years have put a spotlight on the essential role of the civil justice system in keeping consumers safe and holding reckless corporations accountable.

• Hundreds were killed when car ignitions unexpectedly shut off, airbags exploded, or vehicles accelerated out of control.
• Defective artificial hips were implanted in patients, hurting instead of healing them.
• The tobacco industry’s ongoing duplicity and retargeting of a new generation of smokers through e-cigarettes.

Regulatory agencies do their best but often find themselves overwhelmed, with ever-growing caseloads and ever-diminishing resources. Consumer attorneys help fill that void, pressuring corporations and employers to improve product and workplace safety by hitting them where it hurts: their bottom line. Through investigations and litigation, consumer attorneys illuminate safety issues, remove dangerous products from the market, force corporations to make safety improvements, and deter manufacturers from cutting corners that put Californians at risk.

The public dividends have been substantial. Consumer attorneys forced the recall of defective body armor issued to law enforcement officers and soldiers. The civil justice system has brought about safer medications, tires, pajamas, tampons, and a long list of other products. Consumer attorneys have promoted safer playgrounds and roads. It took lawsuits to rein in the tobacco industry, and to bring to light that manufacturers had long hid knowledge.

Example: The Iron Professor
Professor Sang-Mook Lee was a visiting marine geology professor at Caltech when he was severely injured during a field trip with a group of students. As the group drove to a site in a van, the vehicle flipped, crushing the roof and leaving Lee a quadriplegic. His attorneys sued, arguing that Ford chose to ignore the safety hazard of the van's weak roof design. Lee's victory has helped overcome auto industry resistance against improving rollover safety, which in some vehicles costs as little as $100 in additional reinforcement steel. Lee went on to become a national hero in his native Korea, where he is working to promote better recognition and access for the disabled.