We understand the challenge of defending manufacturers of products used by children and their parents.

Juvenile product liability cases, often emotionally charged, carry the potential of large, adverse results in terms of publicity, liability and damage to brand names and goodwill. Manufacturers often assume that such cases are best settled as quickly and quietly as possible. With the experience and guidance of Schiff Hardin's Juvenile Products Litigation and Counseling Team, however, settlement is not the only option.

Our attorneys have litigated these cases in more than 40 states.

We have repeatedly tried these cases successfully to defense verdicts, or have convinced plaintiffs to accept settlements for reasonable amounts (often because they recognize our success in taking these cases to trial). Employing traditional, blunt-force litigation tactics often is not the most successful approach. Through numerous jury studies and actual trials, we have learned how to strike a measured tone in mounting a rigorous defense on behalf of juvenile product manufacturers in a manner that does not offend jurors. In most cases, we have forced settlement demands from plaintiffs well below the cost to take the case to trial, leaving the client in control of whether to resolve the case confidentially through settlement, or to take the case to trial in order to take a stand against would-be future claimants. Also, because we have litigated well over 200 juvenile product cases, we have developed highly effective strategies to hold down the costs associated with resolving these claims.

We have assembled a team of lawyers coast-to-coast to respond rapidly to any incident involving a client's products.

We coordinate with public relations specialists on initial strategies for responding to negative publicity and consumer demands for information, at the same time preserving defenses for use in potential future litigations. We work closely with engineering, medical, biomechanical, accident reconstruction and statistical experts to analyze the evidence and formulate a defense strategy early on in the case. This promotes our ability to perform an early evaluation to determine whether to push a case all the way to trial, or to seek an early resolution through settlement. Our team also has successfully defended manufacturers at the appellate level in both state and federal courts.

Counseling for Juvenile Products Manufacturers and Distributors

In addition to defending juvenile products manufacturers in the courtroom, we counsel our juvenile products clients on a variety of issues arising during the design, manufacturing and distribution phases for their products. Our counseling experience includes:

• Compliance with U.S. government child product safety regulations, particularly those applicable to products imported from Asia
• Disclosure of product hazard information to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CSPC), and negotiating corrective action plans with the CSPC
• The appearance, wording and location of product warning labels and instruction manuals
• Helping product designers capture the appropriate documentation during the design phase for use in potential future product liability lawsuits
• Conducting juvenile product recalls in order to minimize their impact on pending and future litigation
• Making educational presentations on product liability law to engineering, marketing and management personnel
• Strategizing with designers and manufacturers when they change the design of existing products to minimize future product liability exposure