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Something you bought failed, and now you are hurt. Wagners acts for people injured by defective products across Nova Scotia, and our defective product lawyer in Halifax will tell you whether the failure is actionable.
Most callers have already been told they used it incorrectly. Bring us the product, the receipt, and any recall notice, and we will tell you where you stand. Call for a free case review at (902) 425-7330, or 1-800-465-8794 from outside the city.
We start with the object itself, because it usually decides the case.
Wagners holds a Lexpert Top 10 ranking, and our Halifax office holds 4.9 stars across 506 Google reviews. Day-to-day, our process for product files includes:
You pay nothing while that runs, and nothing unless we recover for you.
Most product files are lost long before a lawyer sees them, because the thing that failed went back to the store or into the bin. If you still have it, you still have a case worth assessing.
Call us before you return, repair, or discard anything, and we will tell you what the object is worth as evidence.
More than the fact that something broke.
Canada has no strict liability rule for products, meaning a manufacturer is not automatically responsible just because its product hurts someone. Instead, product liability claims here run in negligence and in contract, which is a real difference from the American model. Three defects give rise to a claim:
A second route runs through the contract itself.
Under the Sale of Goods Act, R.S.N.S. 1989, c. 408, goods sold in the course of business carry implied conditions that they are of merchantable quality and fit for the purpose the buyer made known.
Merchantable quality means fit to be sold and to work the way that kind of product normally works.
Those conditions apply whether or not anyone wrote them down. Proving the defect is only half the work, because causation is where these files are won.
Explore this urgent case overview to see which children sunscreen products were recalled and what steps parents should take next.
Courts apply a "but for" test. You show that, but for the defect, the injury would not have happened, which means ruling out misuse, wear, and every other explanation offered.
Failure to warn asks a different question: would you have used the product at all had the warning been adequate? That turns on your own evidence rather than an abstract reasonable person.
Two rules surprise people. A manufacturer's duty to warn continues after the sale, so a company learning of a risk in year three still owes you notice. In contrast, under what is called the learned intermediary rule, a warning given to your treating physician can satisfy the duty owed to you for prescription drugs and implanted devices.
Expect a misuse argument regardless, and expect it early. Where a court finds you partly responsible, it reduces the award by that share rather than dismissing the claim outright.
Often more than one company. Liability can reach the manufacturer, the importer, the distributor, and the retailer, and some are harder to serve later.
Companies carry a reporting duty of their own.
Section 14(2) of the Canada Consumer Product Safety Act, S.C. 2010, c. 21 requires a manufacturer, importer, or seller to give Health Canada all the information in its control within two days of becoming aware of an incident.
Section 14(3) then requires the manufacturer, or the importer where the manufacturer is outside Canada, to file a written report within 10 days identifying related products that could be involved in a similar incident.
Those records often exist before an injury claim begins, and we can request them. A retailer that kept selling after a recall notice may face separate liability.
Recalls tell you a product failed, but they seldom arrive before the injury. Files we take on involve:
The filing period generally turns on when the injury and its probable cause became discoverable, not when the product was bought.
Under section 8 of the Limitation of Actions Act, S.N.S. 2014, c. 35, that distinction can matter when a device fails years after it was fitted.
Hospital care is publicly funded here, so a claim reaches the losses that the health system does not touch. A file can include the following:
Valuing those items takes medical opinion and employment history, and we commission both.
Product files raise practical questions other injury claims never do, because the evidence is an object you still own.
Yes, and store it exactly as it is. Do not clean it, repair it, or hand it back for a refund, because returning it usually ends your ability to have it examined.
No, though it helps. A recall shows the manufacturer found a problem, but you still have to link that defect to your injury.
You can still claim. A manufacturer's duty in negligence runs to foreseeable users, not only to the original purchaser.
Sometimes. Where a foreign manufacturer sells into this market, our courts can take jurisdiction, depending on the company's connection to the province.
No. We fund the reports and the engineering work, and we take an agreed share only when money comes in.
Longer than a collision claim, because engineering evidence takes time to assemble, most resolve in two to four years, and we will estimate yours once we see the product.
You do not have to know why the product failed. Hand over whatever you still have, and we will find out whether the manufacturer already knew about the defect.
Whether it was a vehicle part, a medication, or a space heater, the first review costs nothing and commits you to nothing. Our defective product lawyer in Halifax is a phone call away at (902) 425-7330, or 1-800-465-8794 from anywhere in Atlantic Canada.
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