Legislation would Aid Consumers in Holding Foreign Manufacturers Accountable for Dangerous Products
As a personal injury lawyer in Chicago, I am pleased with the recent legislative action to hold foreign manufacturers accountable for defective products. The hurdles that obstruct seeking justice in foreign countries are often insurmountable, but the recent legislation helps to make justice more attainable.
Today, foreign manufacturers “are able to skirt the law, exporting billions of dollars of their products to the U.S. without facing accountability for product defects that injure or kill Americans.” The recent “Chinese drywall fiasco highlights [the] need for greater accountability with foreign products” (AAJ News, 8/7). 500 million pounds of this drywall is posing problems for homeowners across the country because of the sulfuric gas the drywall emits. Currently, these homeowners must overcome many obstacles that both lengthen and increase the expense of the legal process in order to hold the Chinese manufacturers accountable.
Fortunately, the “Foreign Manufacturers Legal Accountability Act of 2009 (S. 1606), introduced [recently] by Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Jeff Sessions (R-AL), and Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-IL), [will make] it easier to hold foreign manufacturers accountable in the U.S. civil justice system, putting them on a level playing field with American manufacturers.” The Act attempts to make certain that manufactures who profit in the American market place are also held accountable for their defective products in the same way domestic manufacturers are.
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