Automotive Defects

Southern California Auto Defect Claims and Litigation

The McClellan Law Firm enjoys a national reputation for excellence in client service in complex personal injury and wrongful death litigation of all kinds, but the greatest source of our success has been our work in automotive products liability. We have sued most of the car manufacturers in the world for serious injury claims ranging from defective seatbelts to poor crashworthiness in a collision or rollover accident. To learn how our experience with auto defects claims can benefit you or your family in a serious motor vehicle accident case, contact one of our lawyers in San Diego.

We represent clients in products liability litigation against auto manufacturers in cases where a serious or fatal motor vehicle accident was caused by a dangerous defect of design or construction. We also handle cases where the defective component or system was not the direct cause of the accident, but instead resulted in injuries or death that would not have occurred otherwise. Examples of the kinds of cases our attorneys accept are the following:

• Car fires caused or worsened by a defective fuel line or gas tank design
• Roof crush injuries caused by inadequate structural support of overhead assemblies
• Head, face, and eye injuries caused by defective auto windshield or window glass
• SUV rollovers caused by the vehicle's inherent instability
• Seatbelt failure, airbag failure, or both
• Tire defects such as tread separation, belt edge detachment, or tire bead explosion
• Door latch failure
• Lack of an electronic stability control (ESC) system
• Transmission defects, in which a car in park or neutral suddenly slips into a forward gear
• Defects in exotic autos, race cars, or high-performance models
• Sudden acceleration, in which the vehicle speeds or lurches forward without any action by the driver

Our familiarity with the proof of automotive defect claims gives our clients a substantial if obvious advantage in motor vehicle accident litigation: instead of assuming that the other driver's insurance limits (together with your own underinsured motorist coverage) represent the upper limit of what we can recover for you, we regard that figure as a point of departure.

We carefully analyze the circumstances of your accident to see whether it could have been less severe with the proper performance of the safety systems of every vehicle involved in the crash. In cases where our experience and work with forensic consultants indicate a strong likelihood of liability on the part of a manufacturer, we stand an excellent chance of achieving a settlement or jury verdict for the full amount of your damages, without regard for the limits of any driver's insurance coverage.

Automotive defect claims represent the largest single category of the $250 million that we have recovered on behalf of our clients over the years. For additional information about our ability to represent your interests effectively in a defective auto components case, contact us in San Diego for a free consultation.