Motor Vehicle Defects

People in the Los Angeles area rely heavily on their automobiles.  And when a poorly designed vehicle or a series of vehicles that have been poorly manufactured leads to a series of accidents and injuries, it is important to have those injuries compensated as well as getting those vehicles off the road to be fixed or replaced as quickly as possible.

Motor vehicle defects are a very specialized type of product liability case.  Some of the most recently publicized of these cases are rollover cases, resulting in severe injuries whether the driver and passengers are ejected from or remain in the car.  Investigation has shown that many of the vehicles that are involved in rollover accidents have been engineered so that rollovers are almost inevitable. 

Mr. Yates has worked with defective automobile cases for over 20 years.  Some of his more important motor vehicle defect cases have included:

• The "old style" Volkswagen Beetle had what was characterized as an "ejector seat". Mr. Yates was the first in California to file a suit over this defect, which caused brain and spinal injuries, or even death, when the car was rear-ended.  Ultimately, these suits cause Volkswagen to change the design of the car to eliminate this defect.
• In the early '80's, Honda's cars were notable for having a lack of crashworthiness.  Occupants of Honda automobiles that were involved in even relatively minor accidents were often severely injured because the cars were not sufficiently engineered to properly protect passengers and driver.  The lawsuits brought to compensate victims of this design defect led Honda to modify the design of its automobiles to increase occupant safety and now Honda enjoys one of the best reputations in the industry for safety.
• In the early '90's, the seat belts in Hyundai automobiles were defective, and there was no warning in the manual to let users know that there might be a problem.  Mr. Yates brought lawsuits on behalf of users of Hyundai automobiles who had been injured by this defect.  As a result, the seatbelt mechanism was reengineered.

If you have been injured in an automobile accident which was caused or aggravated by a poorly designed or poorly manufactured motor vehicle, contact the firm to set up an initial consultation.  The firm handles defective motor vehicle cases in Ventura County, Los Angeles County, Orange County, San Bernardino County, and Riverside County. Let the dedication and experience of Mr. Yates and his associates go to work for you.