Modern medicine has improved the quality of countless people’s lives. Unfortunately, sometimes drugs are improperly vetted before hitting the market or prescribed incorrectly, resulting in serious harm to the patient.
Having skilled legal representation on your side is important in these cases, as many pharmaceutical companies and hospitals have veteran attorneys on retainer. These entities also tend to have exponentially more financial resources than individual citizens.
For these reasons, it is usually best to get in touch with a personal injury attorney who could represent your interests and protect your right to compensation. If you or a loved one suffer injury due to a dangerous drug, you may want to contact a Holiday dangerous drugs lawyer as soon as possible.
The “State-of-the-Art” Issue
One of the difficult factors involved in many dangerous drugs lawsuits is proving the negligence of the drug’s manufacturer. According to Florida Statutes §768.1257, a product liability case must consider the “state of the art of scientific and technical knowledge” that was available when the product was manufactured. This means that an injured person must be able to show that the manufacturer of the drug had the ability to discern its potential harm at the time the drug was manufactured.
In other words, even if medical knowledge would have been able to predict possible dangers at the time of the person’s injury, there may not be a basis for a case if that knowledge was not available when the pharmaceutical company manufactured the drug. The ever-changing state of scientific knowledge is one reason that an injured person should seek counsel from an experienced Holiday dangerous drugs attorney when seeking to pursue such a case.
The Food and Drug Administration’s Role
Drugs that are on the market are supposed to be screened and approved by the Food and Drug Administration to ensure public safety. However, sometimes the screening process can be rushed, leading to unsafe drugs becoming available to patients.
Even when the process is not rushed, drugs with harmful side effects may be approved for sale if those side effects do not occur frequently. Just because the FDA has approved a drug does not mean that a consumer loses the right to sue the manufacturer for damages.
Mass Tort Options
Since drugs are widely available in the marketplace, some dangerous drugs cases affect thousands of consumers with similar circumstances and harms. In these situations, it may be best for injured people to join their claims together in a collective mass tort case.
The effect of a mass tort case is to consolidate all the cases brought against one manufacturer by many plaintiffs into a single case that will only need to be decided once, rather than having thousands of separate cases across the country. However, some injured people may be better represented by filing their own separate case. A dangerous drugs lawyer in Holiday could help determine whether starting or joining a mass tort could give an injured person the best chance at recovering compensation.
Find a Holiday Dangerous Drugs Lawyer Today
Dangerous drugs cases are almost never easy, especially since pharmaceutical companies have extensive resources and strong motivations to avoid paying compensation. If a dangerous drug harms you or a loved one, the best choice is usually to bring a Holiday dangerous drugs lawyer onto the case.
A skilled attorney may be able to enlist the aid of expert witnesses to testify regarding the extreme dangers inherent in the drug, compile a comprehensive list of your damages, help you face depositions and interrogation from the opposing attorneys, and negotiate for an acceptable settlement on your behalf. Speak with a lawyer today to start working toward your compensation.
