Ikea to Pay $46 Million after the Death of Boy due to Dresser Tipping Over
Jozef Dudek, a two-year-old boy from Buena Park, California, died of the injuries suffered in a 2017 incident in which a 70-pound “Malm” dresser – from Ikea – tipped over. Recently, Ikea agreed to pay $46 million to the child’s parents.
In 2016, Ikea issued a recall for millions of dressers with a tip-over risk; the recall was issued after the death of three children associated with the dressers. In late 2016, the parents of these three children were awarded a combined settlement of $50 million.
The $46 million settlement came after Jozef Dudek’s family argued that Ikea was aware that the dressers posed a significant tip-over risk but failed to inform consumers that the dressers shouldn’t be used without being anchored to a wall.
The settlement reached by Jozef Dudek’s family also requires that the furniture-giant meet with Parents Against Tip-Overs, an advocacy organization, and to broaden the company’s outreach to consumers regarding the recall of their dressers.
Dressers are constantly recalled for tip-over hazards; however, many dangerous products remain in the homes of consumers. Have you and your family been directly harmed by defective dressers? If your child suffered any sort of harm due to a dresser tipping over, you might have grounds to sue. Depending on the specific details surrounding the incident and the harm that your child suffered, you might have grounds to sue and even receive monetary compensation.
For more information, it is essential that you seek legal assistance – you could trust the experts at Downtown L.A. Law Group. Downtown L.A. Law Group is a personal injury law firm with many years of experience handling all sorts of claims, including defective product claims. The lawyers at our firm are ready to evaluate your claim and provide you with the information necessary to hold the liable entity accountable for the harm that your child suffered. If you are ready to discuss your claim with the experts at our firm, do not hesitate to contact us at your earliest convenience.
An Overview of Product Liability
To understand why Ikea paid the parents of the two-year-old victim a $46 million settlement, you must have a thorough understanding of product liability. Based on product liability, all companies owe their consumers a duty of care. They have the duty to ensure that all their products are completely safe for use. To ensure that their products are safe for use, they must inspect and test their products to be able to identify and address any hazards prior to releasing products to the public (and putting their consumers at risk of injury).
Unfortunately, many companies do not ensure that their products are safe for their consumers to use. By failing to do so, these companies are breaching their duty of care towards their consumers and recklessly putting them at risk of harm. The breach of duty could contribute to an incident which could directly lead to harm. When this happens, the company could be held accountable for all harm suffered.
Companies could be liable for the harm caused by their products as long as the product defect is present in labeling, design, or manufacturing. What does it mean for consumers when companies can be held liable based on product liability? Based on product liability, companies, such as Ikea, could be sued if their defective products directly contribute to the harm that their consumers suffered.
If you would like to learn more about product liability and your right to pursue a defective product claim against Ikea after your child suffered any sort of harm due to a dresser tip-over incident, do not hesitate to seek legal assistance with the experts at our firm immediately.
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Your Right to Sue and Receive Compensation
There is no amount of monetary compensation that could make you forget the traumatic event that resulted in the harm your child suffered. If you child suffered fatal injuries, you know that know amount of compensation can reverse your child’s death and bring him or her back to you. However, recovering compensation can help you and your family move forward from such a traumatic experience and start focusing on healing from the loss of your child.
If your claim reaches a successful outcome, you could be eligible to recover compensation for some of the following:
- Medical expenses
- Lost earnings
- Pain and suffering
- Property damage
- Funeral and burial costs
- Punitive damages
How much compensation could you be eligible to recover? What type of compensation could you receive? These questions are among many other questions that should be reserved for the attorney that you choose to handle your claim. The type and amount of compensation that you could be eligible to recover will always depend on the details surrounding your claim. If you would like to learn more about the type and amount of compensation that you could be eligible to receive if your claim reaches a successful outcome, do not hesitate to seek legal assistance with the experts at our firm immediately.
Our product liability lawyers are ready to aggressively fight for your right to recover the highest amount of compensation available for your claim – whether they have to negotiate a settlement or take your claim to trail, you can be certain that their will always be someone aggressively advocating for your right to be compensated.
Important Steps to Consider Taking
All claimants interested in pursuing claims for the harm caused by defective products should do the following:
- Seek medical attention
- Take photos of the scene of the incident
- Take photos of the visible physical injuries suffered
- Take photos of the defective product
- Keep the defective product in a safe place inaccessible to children
- Do not tamper with the defective product in any way
- Do not attempt to repair the defective product
- Contact the company to report the product defect and the harm suffered
- Do not agree to a free repair
- Do not agree to a full refund
- Do not agree to a replacement
- Do not agree to return the defective product
- Speak to witnesses
- Gather any home surveillance videos that might have captured the accident
- Gather purchase records
- Seek legal assistance with a defective product attorney
Many people unknowingly get rid of the most important piece of information for their claims – the defective product. It is completely normal to want to destroy the product that harmed your child; however, doing so is the worst thing to do. In defective product claims, the product is the most important piece of evidence. If you would like to learn more about the specific actions that you should take after your child was harmed by a defective product, do not hesitate to contact our law firm at your earliest convenience.
Your Claim is Subject to a Deadline
There is no doubt that the consumers affected by defective products have the right to pursue claims. Did you know that you could lose your right to sue? All claims are subject to a statute of limitations – or a deadline. If claims are not filed within the time allowed by the statute of limitations that applies, claimants will lose their right to sue.
What deadline applies to your claim? In California, defective product claims are typically subject to a two-year statute of limitations. This means that claimants only have two years to file their claims. As mentioned above, if claims are not filed within the correct amount of time, claimants will lose the right to sue. To ensure that you have a thorough understanding of the specific deadline that applies to your claim, do not hesitate to contact our firm immediately.
Contact Our Law Firm Immediately
If your child suffered any type of harm associated with a defective dresser that tipped over, you might have grounds to pursue a claim. If the dresser that harmed your child was an Ikea dresser, you could pursue a claim against Ikea. If you would like to learn more about your right to pursue a lawsuit for the harm that your child suffered due to a defective product, such as the defective Ikea dressers, do not hesitate to seek legal assistance with the experts at our law firm at your earliest convenience. At Downtown L.A. Law Group, our lawyers have many years of experience handling all sorts of claims, including those arising from incidents involving recalled products. At our firm, we are dedicated to providing affected parties with the legal assistance that they need to pursue their claims and reach successful claim outcomes. If you would like to discuss your claim with the experts at our firm, do not hesitate to contact us at your earliest convenience.
At our firm, we acknowledge that far too many people do not have access to appropriate legal representation. Therefore, we strive to make it easy for you. Specifically, we offer free legal services, which include both free consultations and free second opinions. During our free consultations and free second opinions, our lawyers will be available to answer all your questions and address all your concerns – ensuring that you have access to all the information that you need to pursue your claim. Regardless of whether you are interested in starting or continuing your claim, you can trust the experts at our firm to provide you with the guidance that you need.
Our firm offers a Zero-Fee guarantee that ensures that our clients will not be required to pay any upfront legal fees for any of our legal services. Our firm is also strictly based on a contingency structure; this means that our clients will not be required to pay anything until after reaching a successful claim outcome.
If you are ready to discuss your defective dresser claim with the experts at our firm, do not hesitate to contact us at your earliest convenience.
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