Michigan Defective Product Wrongful Death Lawyer

A vehicle airbag that explodes instead of protecting. A lithium-ion battery that turns a charging e-bike into a house fire. A dresser that tips onto a toddler. When a product kills someone, the manufacturer rarely calls it a defect. It calls it misuse, or an accident, and its lawyers begin building that defense while your family is still planning the funeral.

Vahdat Weisman Law represents Michigan families in wrongful death claims against manufacturers and sellers of dangerous products. These are among the most demanding cases in civil law, built on engineering experts and corporate documents, against defendants with resources. They can be won, and the two things that most often decide them are whether the product was preserved and whether the law was applied precisely. Call (734) 469-4994 for a free, confidential consultation, any hour. You pay no attorney fee unless we recover compensation for your family.

Three Kinds of Defect

Michigan product liability law, codified at MCL 600.2945 and the sections that follow, reaches deaths caused by defects in a product’s design, in the manufacture of the particular unit, and in the warnings that accompanied it.

Design defect claims contend the product was dangerous as designed: a vehicle that rolls over in foreseeable maneuvers, a machine without a guard, a space heater without a tip-over shutoff. Michigan requires proof that the product was not reasonably safe when it left the manufacturer’s control and that a practical, technically feasible alternative design would have prevented the death without significantly impairing the product’s usefulness or creating equal or greater risks. That is an engineering question, and it is answered with engineering experts whose methods must survive the manufacturer’s motions to exclude them, which is where many product cases are actually decided.

Manufacturing defect claims involve the one unit that left the line wrong: the missed weld, the contaminated batch, the brake component machined out of spec.

Failure to warn claims arise when a company knew or should have known about a material risk and failed to adequately warn the people using the product. Michigan limits these claims in ways families should hear early: there is generally no duty to warn of risks that are obvious or common knowledge, and no liability for risks that reasonably available scientific knowledge could not have identified at the time. What keeps these claims alive is discovery, because internal documents have a long history of showing companies knew more, and earlier, than their labels admitted.

What Michigan’s Damages Cap Means for Your Family

Michigan caps non-economic damages in product liability cases, and you should hear that from a lawyer before you sign anything. Under MCL 600.2946a, damages for pain and suffering and loss of companionship are capped at figures the state treasurer certifies each year: for 2026, $596,400 in most cases, and $1,065,000 where the defect caused death or the permanent loss of a vital bodily function. The cap applies to the total non-economic recovery in the case, not separately to each family member.

Two things keep the cap from being the whole story. Economic damages are not capped: medical expenses before death, funeral costs, and the financial support and household services your family lost remain fully recoverable when proven. And the cap does not apply at all where the court determines the defendant actually knew the product was defective, knew there was a substantial likelihood the defect would cause this kind of injury, and willfully disregarded that knowledge, the standard set by MCL 600.2949a. That is a demanding showing, made with internal memos, ignored test failures, prior incidents, and quiet design changes, which is one more reason thorough discovery is not optional in these cases.

Michigan Finally Opened the Courthouse to Drug Injury Claims

For nearly three decades, Michigan stood alone in giving drug manufacturers near-absolute immunity when an FDA-approved drug killed someone. The legislature repealed that immunity through 2023 PA 285, effective February 13, 2024. Families harmed by dangerous prescription drugs after that date can now bring claims Michigan courts once dismissed at the door.

The other half of the story: a federal court applying Michigan law has held the repeal is not retroactive, so claims based on drug injuries from before February 13, 2024 generally remain barred, and where the injury developed over time, the timing analysis gets technical quickly. FDA approval also still matters, because compliance with government standards gives manufacturers a rebuttable presumption of non-liability under MCL 600.2946, and federal preemption defenses remain available in drug and medical device cases regardless of Michigan law. None of that makes these cases impossible. It makes them cases for lawyers who will assess the timing and the science honestly, which we will.

The Products That Keep Appearing in Fatal Cases

The same categories recur in fatal product cases nationally, and the federal safety data explains why. Defective airbag inflators remain on the road: the Takata recalls covered about 67 million inflators after ruptures were linked to 28 deaths in the United States, and federal regulators have preliminarily determined that roughly 51 million ARC and Delphi inflators are defective, a finding manufacturers are still contesting while the vehicles stay in driveways. Lithium-ion battery fires in e-bikes, scooters, and hoverboards have killed dozens of people, part of 135 micromobility-related deaths the Consumer Product Safety Commission counted in 2024 alone. Furniture and TV tip-overs killed 217 people from 2013 through mid-2023, 71 percent of them children. Nursery products are associated with an average of 174 deaths of children under five each year. Machinery, generators, space heaters, and contaminated food round out the list.

One point families often get wrong in both directions: a recall does not automatically win your case, and the absence of one does not defeat it. A recall is evidence, sometimes powerful evidence, of what the manufacturer knew. The case is proven by the defect in the specific product that caused the death, which is why what happens to that product in the next few weeks matters more than anything else on this page.

Preserve the Product

In a fatal product case, the most valuable evidence is usually the product itself, in the condition the incident left it. The burned battery pack, the crashed vehicle, the failed ladder, the tipped dresser: photograph everything, keep the product secure, and do not release it to the manufacturer, the insurer, or a salvage yard, and do not authorize repairs. If the product is hazardous, a burned battery, or a damaged fuel system, let trained hands move it, but keep control of where it goes. Manufacturers ask for their products back for “inspection,” and families who agree without protections in place can lose the case in a single shipment.

Michigan courts can sanction parties who destroy evidence, but a sanction is a poor substitute for the product. We send preservation letters to everyone holding relevant evidence, arrange secure storage, and insist that any destructive testing follow an agreed protocol with all parties present. Where the product is already gone, cases can sometimes still be built from photographs, exemplar units, records, and circumstantial evidence, but that is the harder road, and honesty requires saying so. If an insurer is pressing to total a vehicle or haul away debris, call us this week, not next month.

Who Can Be Held Responsible, and How Long You Have

The manufacturer is the primary defendant, and component makers, and in some cases importers and sellers, can share responsibility. Michigan is narrower than many states on sellers: under MCL 600.2947, a non-manufacturing seller is generally liable only for its own failure to exercise reasonable care or breach of an express warranty. Identifying every entity in the chain of distribution early, including foreign manufacturers and successor companies, is part of building a claim that can actually be collected on.

Expect the defense to argue misuse and alteration. Michigan law asks whether the misuse or alteration was reasonably foreseeable, and a company that knows how its product is actually used cannot disclaim the predictable. But these defenses are not always mere tactics; where an alteration truly caused the death, that is a real problem for the claim, and we will tell you so after we investigate rather than promising otherwise. Comparative fault also applies: fault assigned to your loved one reduces economic damages proportionally, and fault above 50 percent bars non-economic damages.

The wrongful death claim proceeds under MCL 600.2922, filed by the personal representative of the estate, an appointment we handle through probate. The limitations period for product liability claims is generally three years under MCL 600.5805, with limited additional time possible for personal representatives under MCL 600.5852. Michigan has no general statute of repose cutting off product claims by age, though claims over products in use ten years or more lose the benefit of certain presumptions, and older products raise successor-liability and evidence questions that make early investigation more important, not less.

What Should You Do Now?

Secure the product and everything that came with it: packaging, manuals, receipts, the charger, the box in the garage. Photograph the scene and the product from every angle before anything is moved. Do not give recorded statements to the manufacturer or its insurer, and do not sign anything authorizing repair, salvage, return, or “inspection” of the product. Write down where and when it was bought, and keep related emails and texts. Then bring it to us, and let the preservation letters, expert retention, and discovery be our work instead of your worry.

Why Choose Vahdat Weisman Law?

Product manufacturers defend these cases with national law firms and consulting engineers on retainer. Meeting that requires a firm that moves immediately on preservation, retains experts whose opinions hold up in court, and knows the Michigan statutes these defendants invoke: the alternative-design requirement, the government-standards presumption, the cap and its actual-knowledge exception. We handle these cases on a contingency fee and advance the substantial costs they require, and we are honest with families at the outset about whether the evidence supports a claim worth pursuing, because not every tragedy involving a product is a product case. We explain everything in plain language, in English or Spanish, for families across Michigan.

Founding partners Kara E. Weisman and Jordan S. Vahdat have each been honored as Super Lawyers Rising Stars, and our attorneys are members of the State Bar of Michigan and active in the Michigan Association for Justice. Phones are answered 24/7. Our main wrongful death page explains how Michigan fatal injury claims work generally.

Frequently Asked Questions

• The product that killed my husband was recalled. Do we automatically win? No, and the reverse is also true: no recall does not mean no case. A recall is evidence, often strong evidence, that the manufacturer knew of a danger. The case is proven through the defect in the specific unit, causation, and damages. We use recalls, service bulletins, and prior complaints as part of that larger picture.
• The insurance company wants to take the vehicle to their yard. Should we let them? Not before talking to a lawyer. Once the product leaves your control, its condition, and sometimes the product itself, can be lost, and with it the heart of the case. Preservation letters and controlled storage are things we put in place the day we are retained.
• My loved one died from a prescription drug. I heard Michigan does not allow those lawsuits. That was true for decades, but Michigan repealed its drug manufacturer immunity effective February 13, 2024. Claims based on injuries after that date can go forward; injuries from before it generally remain barred, and cases that straddle the line involve technical timing questions. Bring us the facts, and we will tell you honestly where they land.
• The company says my son modified the product. Does that end the case? Not necessarily. The questions are whether the modification was reasonably foreseeable and whether it, rather than a defect, actually caused the death. Companies raise misuse and alteration in nearly every case; sometimes it is a real issue and often it is not, and the physical evidence usually settles which.
• What does this cost our family? Nothing up front. The consultation is free; we advance case costs, including experts, and we collect a fee only if we recover compensation for your family.

Talk to a Michigan Defective Product Wrongful Death Lawyer Today

The manufacturer started protecting itself the day it learned of the death. Your family is entitled to the same diligence. Call Vahdat Weisman Law at (734) 469-4994 or contact us online for a free, confidential consultation. Available 24/7, serving all of Michigan, with Spanish-speaking staff.

Dedicated to Justice. Devoted to You. Winning for Your Future.

This information is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Every case is unique, and prior results do not guarantee future success.