IMPENDING ATTACKS ON ADVANCED PRODUCTS 2022-07-06T21:39:00+00:00
driverless-vehicle
pilotless-aircraft
domestic-robots
nano-medical-devices
artificial-intelligence
genetically-coded-products
other-advanced-products

EVs, AVs, RIDESHARE, AND ADAS

driverless-vehicle
pilotless-aircraft
domestic-robot-filled
nano-medical-devices
artificial-intelligence
genetically-coded-products
other-advanced-products

The automotive industry is experiencing revolutionary change, and, as it evolves, we are seeing and will continue to see rapid increases in the use of electric vehicles, vehicles with autonomous features, autonomous ride-share vehicles, and connectivity. This revolution in the transportation sector has already begun to alter the automotive product liability landscape and will undoubtedly continue to do so for the foreseeable future.  Indeed, the use of lithium-ion batteries to power electric vehicles has already led to numerous cases in which plaintiffs’ trial lawyers allege that a lack of crashworthiness of such battery systems led to post-crash fires and personal injuries. Plaintiffs’ trial lawyers are also already initiating cases alleging that advanced driver assistance systems should have been provided in vehicles where they were not and that certain advanced driving features that were provided were defectively designed or did not perform as they should have performed. The increasing development and deployment of unique vehicles designed for autonomous ride-sharing will undoubtedly lead to new types of allegations of lack of crashworthiness of such vehicles. Markland Hanley is fully prepared to immediately assess and respond to the attacks that are being made and will be made in the future against electric, advanced, and autonomous vehicles and their systems. We have spent countless hours preparing to defend manufacturers of autonomous vehicles, advanced driver assistance systems, and battery and other advanced power systems, against the new and rapidly growing wave of product liability suits targeting their products.

We have deep knowledge regarding defending cases involving battery operated vehicles, Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), including Driver Attention Systems (DAS), Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC), Lane Departure Systems (LDA), Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB), and semi-autonomous self-steering systems, and in defending cases in which it is alleged that such systems should have been provided, but were not.

Markland Hanley has established itself as one of the most recognized product liability law firms for the defense of the fully autonomous or driverless vehicles that will be widely available in the future.

Dale Markland is a prolific author and speaker in the field of defense of autonomous products, including autonomous vehicles, electric vehicles, and ADAS systems. Dale was the only product liability lawyer asked to present at and be a Keynote Speaker at the Vehicle and Connected Services Conference, 2019 in Gothenburg, Sweden, Europe’s premier conference related to autonomous vehicles. Dale founded and served as one of the two initial co-heads of the Autonomous Vehicles and Products Action Group of the Products Liability Advisory Council, Inc. (PLAC), and is currently an active member of PLAC’s CASE Mobility Group.

Tara Hanley has also authored and presented extensively in the field of defense of autonomous products, including autonomous vehicles and ADAS systems, was an active member of the PLAC Autonomous Vehicles and Products Action Group, and is currently an active member of the PLAC CASE Mobility Group.

A summary of Dale and Tara’s papers, presentations, and other participation in leading conferences relating to autonomous vehicles and other autonomous products can be found in the biographical section of this site.

Markland Hanley has decades of experience defending hundreds of high risk automotive product liability cases, including crashworthiness cases, restraint system cases, seat cases, post-collision fuel fed fire cases, and cases involving a wide variety of automotive components, including brakes, rollover protection systems, tires, fuel system components, seatbelts, advanced restraint systems, and electrical system components. We have defended manufacturers in the most serious cases, including those involving death, quadriplegia, paraplegia, brain and nervous system injury, amputations, and severe burns.

We have the knowledge and the experience necessary to effectively defend all of the attacks that may be made on any aspect of the design or on any component of your company’s electric, autonomous, and semi-autonomous vehicles and products.

Although pilotless commercial airliners are certainly a thing of the future, autonomous drones and autonomous commuter hovercraft may be seen more closely on the horizon.  The designers and manufacturers of such pilotless aircraft will face unique challenges when preparing for the unjustified attacks that will most likely be launched by plaintiffs’ trial lawyers.

From a product liability defense lawyer’s point of view, there are a handful of design and marketing decisions that will be made by the designers and manufacturers of pilotless aircraft and related products that will most often be unjustifiably attacked by plaintiffs’ trial lawyers. Markland Hanley can provide your company with the design phase and pre-marketing advice you need regarding these potential attacks and how best to avoid them prior to lawsuits being filed.  If lawsuits are filed, Markland Hanley can provide you with the necessary high-quality defense in these types of cases.

Generally, plaintiffs’ trial lawyers may launch attacks on all key design elements of pilotless aircraft, including perception capabilities, decision-making capabilities, and including information and warnings provided with such aircraft.  Markland Hanley is prepared to respond to all such attacks in the most effective ways.

How We Can Help

Designers and manufacturers must begin to prepare their defensive responses to the unjustified attacks now, and they must engage a team of pilotless aircraft defenders. Those defenders must certainly be experienced trial lawyers, but perhaps as importantly, they must be trial lawyers who focus time and energy on the types of products and technical design and marketing issues that will predominate in the new product liability world of pilotless aircraft, and on what can best be done now to respond to the upcoming unjustified attacks. Such a team must also include appropriate experts, for the new autonomous era allegations, and Markland Hanley can assist in locating appropriate experts and putting the best possible expert team together.

Markland Hanley’s product liability attorneys have decades of experience consulting with product manufacturers relative to potential product liability risks and defending product manufacturers in product liability litigation.  Markland Hanley presently focuses its practice on consulting with and defending in product liability lawsuits, manufacturers of autonomous products, including pilotless aircraft and other advanced products.

Markland Hanley’s lawyers have defended hundreds of high-risk product liability cases. We have defended manufacturers in the most serious cases, including those involving death, quadriplegia, paraplegia, brain and nervous system injury, amputations, and severe burns.

Dale Markland is a prolific author and speaker in the field of defense of autonomous products, including autonomous vehicles.  He was the only product liability lawyer asked to present at and be a Keynote Speaker at the Vehicle and Connected Services Conference 2019 in Gothenburg, Sweden, Europe’s premier conference related to autonomous vehicles.  Dale founded and served as one of the two initial co-heads of the Autonomous Vehicles and Products Action Group of PLAC (formerly the Products Liability Advisory Council, Inc.).

Tara Hanley has also authored and presented in the field of defense of autonomous products, including autonomous vehicles and ADAS systems.

A summary of Dale and Tara’s papers, presentations, and other participation in leading conferences relating to autonomous products can be found in the biographical section of this website.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the benefits of and has accelerated the use of robotic products in a wide variety of applications.  The ever-increasing use of robotic products will lead to ever-increasing attacks on such products by plaintiffs’ trial lawyers in product liability lawsuits.

Cleaning/Scrubbing/Disinfecting Robots

Robots designed for cleaning, scrubbing and disinfecting doors, walls, shelves, tables, counter tops, and an infinite variety of other surfaces in an infinite variety of businesses, offices, outdoor spaces, and other public and private places will become the norm in the post-pandemic era.  Such robots will be ubiquitous in short order.  As with the past and present ubiquity of motor vehicles, the ubiquity of cleaning robots is certain to lead to lawsuits alleging that accidents, injuries, illnesses, and deaths resulted from alleged defects in the design, manufacture, and/or marketing of such robots.

Individuals exposed to COVID-19 or another virus or infectious disease at a location at which robotic cleaning, scrubbing, or disinfecting have taken place may allege that the cleaning, scrubbing, or disinfecting performed by the robots was inadequate, leading to the illness of the exposed individual or to the death of an exposed loved one.  Others may allege injury, illness, or death resulting from exposure to toxic substances used in the robots’ cleaning procedures.

It may be alleged that the robots’ activities left slick areas on floor surfaces leading to slips and falls and resulting injuries.

As with other types of mobile robots, if cleaning robots are used in the presence of humans, the robots could potentially impact with or run over the humans, leading to direct impact injuries, knock down injuries, or pinching, trapping, or crushing injuries.

Injuries or deaths resulting from a robot running off or falling off a deck, dock, vehicle, or ramp could lead to product liability or negligence lawsuits.

All such occurrences and many others, if they lead to injury or death, can lead to product liability or other lawsuits.

Delivery Robots  

More and more businesses and individuals will utilize and accept delivery robots rather than human delivery personnel because such robots will not pose the same risk as humans relative to passing viruses or other harmful pathogens on to the recipient of the delivered product or item.  Such robots can be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected before each delivery.  Eventually robots could be self-cleaned or disinfected.

These delivery robots will, like motor vehicles and cleaning robots, become ubiquitous.  As the number of such robots in use increases exponentially, so will the number of lawsuits alleging that the robots are to blame for accidents, injuries, illnesses, and deaths arising from their use.

If delivery recipients contract COVID-19 or other illnesses, plaintiffs’ trial lawyers will allege that the delivery robots are responsible for transmitting the pathogen and that pre-delivery cleaning or disinfecting practices were inadequate.

Many delivery robots will operate on public or private sidewalks or crosswalks and will interact with humans.  Such interactions could lead to impact, knock down, pinching, trapping, or crushing injuries and potentially to robot run over injuries.  Lawsuits will follow.  Such interactions could also lead to humans moving to avoid contact with the robot and thus impacting another human, an object, or, if the human moves into an adjacent street, even a motor vehicle.

Delivery robots moving across streets at crosswalks or other locations could initiate on street vehicle movement, leading to accidents.

All types of accidents involving robot and human interaction have the potential to lead to severe injuries or deaths and, therefore, to lawsuits.

How We Can Help

Manufacturers should address the potential risks associated with robot and human interaction during the product design phase, and such discussions should include experienced product liability trial lawyers who can assist in identifying potential attacks on the products’ designs and the adequacy of warnings, and who can assist in fashioning both pre-litigation defensive approaches and defensive approaches for litigation.

Markland Hanley’s product liability attorneys have decades of experience consulting with product manufacturers relative to potential product liability risks and defending product manufacturers in product liability litigation.  Markland Hanley presently focuses its practice on consulting with and defending in product liability lawsuits, manufacturers of autonomous products, including robotic products, and other advanced products.

Markland Hanley’s lawyers have defended hundreds of high-risk product liability cases. We have defended manufacturers in the most serious cases, including those involving death, quadriplegia, paraplegia, brain and nervous system injury, amputations, and severe burns.

Dale Markland is a prolific author and speaker in the field of defense of autonomous products, including autonomous vehicles and ADAS systems.  He was the only product liability lawyer asked to present at and be a Keynote Speaker at the Vehicle and Connected Services Conference 2019 in Gothenburg, Sweden, Europe’s premier conference related to autonomous vehicles.  Dale founded and served as one of the two initial co-heads of the Autonomous Vehicles and Products Action Group of PLAC (formerly the Products Liability Advisory Council, Inc.).

Tara Hanley has also authored and presented in the field of defense of autonomous products, including autonomous vehicles and ADAS systems.

A summary of Dale’s and Tara’s papers, presentations, and other participation in leading conferences relating to autonomous products can be found in the biographical section of this website.

Nano-medical devices have shown great promise in various applications for health care. Many nano scale devices have already been approved by the FDA. Nano scale materials can be used as delivery mechanisms allowing cells to absorb therapeutics into the cell wall. Various nano materials and devices are being researched for use in cancer therapeutics. Nanowires and needles are being researched and developed for use in epilepsy and heart control. Nanosized surgical instruments can be used to perform microsurgeries and for better visualization of surgery.

Nano-medical devices include nano or miniaturized devices placed in the human body through injection, swallowing, inspiration or other means that can autonomously or partially autonomously clear plaque from blood vessels or other bodily parts, deliver cancer fighting drugs to the location of the cancer cells and deposit such drugs at that precise location, and those that release radiation therapy at tumor sites. The Food and Drug Administration approved the first digital pill, Abilify MyCite, which tracks if patients have taken their medication, in November of 2017. Artificial red blood cells called respirocytes are considered the simplest and likely one of the first nanomachines available in nano-medicine. Respirocytes could deliver oxygen hundreds of times more efficiently than real blood cells.  If this technology becomes available, blood transfusions may become a thing of the past, and treatment of respiratory and cardiovascular disorders could be greatly improved.

How We Can Help

From a product liability defense lawyer’s point of view, there are a handful of design and marketing decisions that will be made by the designers and manufacturers of autonomous nano-medical devices and related products that will most often be unjustifiably attacked by plaintiffs’ trial lawyers. Markland Hanley can provide your company with the design phase and pre-marketing advice you need regarding these potential attacks and how best to avoid them prior to lawsuits being filed.  If lawsuits are filed, Markland Hanley can provide you with the necessary high-quality defense in these types of cases.  Markland Hanley is prepared to respond to plaintiffs’ trial lawyers’ attacks on the key design elements of nano-medical devices and on the information and warnings provided with such devices.

In this product liability arena, the issue of adequacy of warnings and instructions will, under Texas law and the law of many jurisdictions, be judged by a different standard than in the other arenas discussed in this website. The issue will be whether the warnings and instructions given were adequate not for the patient, but rather for the sophisticated physician who is to administer the treatment. The fate of product liability cases will often turn on the language used on labels, on compliance with FDA and other government requirements, and in some instances on the preemption defense.

Designers and manufacturers of autonomous nano-medical devices must begin to prepare their defensive responses to the unjustified attacks now, and they must engage a team of autonomous nano-medical device defenders. Those defenders must certainly be experienced trial lawyers, but perhaps as importantly, they must be trial lawyers who focus time and energy on the types of products and technical design and marketing issues that will predominate in the new product liability world of autonomous nano-medical devices, and on what can best be done now to respond to the upcoming unjustified attacks. Such a team must also include appropriate experts, for the new autonomous era allegations, and Markland Hanley can assist in locating appropriate experts and putting the best possible expert team together.

Markland Hanley’s product liability attorneys have decades of experience consulting with product manufacturers relative to potential product liability risks and defending product manufacturers in product liability litigation.  Markland Hanley presently focuses its practice on consulting with and defending in product liability lawsuits, manufacturers of autonomous products, including nano-medical devices and other advanced products.

Markland Hanley’s lawyers have defended hundreds of high-risk product liability cases. We have defended manufacturers in the most serious cases, including those involving death, quadriplegia, paraplegia, brain and nervous system injury, amputations, and severe burns.

Dale Markland is a prolific author and speaker in the field of defense of autonomous products, including autonomous vehicles and ADAS systems.  He was the only product liability lawyer asked to present at and be a Keynote Speaker at the Vehicle and Connected Services Conference 2019 in Gothenburg, Sweden, Europe’s premier conference related to autonomous vehicles.  Dale founded and served as one of the two initial co-heads of the Autonomous Vehicles and Products Action Group of PLAC (formerly the Products Liability Advisory Council, Inc.).

Tara Hanley has also authored and presented in the field of defense of autonomous products, including autonomous vehicles and ADAS systems.

A summary of Dale’s and Tara’s papers, presentations, and other participation in leading conferences relating to autonomous products can be found in the biographical section of this website.

Manufacturers of products that incorporate true creative artificial intelligence or hard artificial intelligence, such as products utilizing IBM’S Watson system, will confront some of the most important and weighty technical and legal issues of our time in product liability cases.

From a product liability defense lawyer’s point of view, there are a handful of design and marketing decisions that have been or will be made by the designers and manufacturers of products incorporating artificial intelligence and related products that will most often be unjustifiably attacked by plaintiffs’ trial lawyers. Markland Hanley can provide your company with the design phase and pre-marketing advice you need regarding these potential attacks and how best to respond to them prior to lawsuits being filed.  If lawsuits are filed, Markland Hanley can provide you with the necessary high-quality defense in these types of cases.

Generally, plaintiffs’ trial lawyers may launch attacks on all key design elements of products incorporating artificial intelligence, including perception capabilities, decision-making capabilities, and including information and warnings provided with such products.  Markland Hanley is prepared to respond to all such attacks in the most effective ways.

How We Can Help

Designers and manufacturers must begin to prepare their defensive responses to the unjustified attacks now, and they must engage a team of artificial intelligence product defenders. Those defenders must certainly be experienced trial lawyers, but perhaps as importantly, they must be trial lawyers who focus time and energy on the types of products and technical design and marketing issues that will predominate in the new product liability world of artificial intelligence based products, and on what can best be done now to respond to the upcoming unjustified attacks. Such a team must also include appropriate experts, for the new autonomous era allegations, and Markland Hanley can assist in locating appropriate experts and putting the best possible expert team together.

Markland Hanley’s product liability attorneys have decades of experience consulting with product manufacturers relative to potential product liability risks and defending product manufacturers in product liability litigation.  Markland Hanley presently focuses its practice on consulting with and defending in product liability lawsuits, manufacturers of autonomous products, including those incorporating artificial intelligence and other advanced products.

Markland Hanley’s lawyers have defended hundreds of high-risk product liability cases. We have defended manufacturers in the most serious cases, including those involving death, quadriplegia, paraplegia, brain and nervous system injury, amputations, and severe burns.

Dale Markland is a prolific author and speaker in the field of defense of autonomous products, including autonomous vehicles and ADAS systems.  He was the only product liability lawyer asked to present at and be a Keynote Speaker at the Vehicle and Connected Services Conference 2019 in Gothenburg, Sweden, Europe’s premier conference related to autonomous vehicles.  Dale founded and served as one of the two initial co-heads of the Autonomous Vehicles and Products Action Group of PLAC (formerly the Products Liability Advisory Council, Inc.).

Tara Hanley has also authored and presented in the field of defense of autonomous products, including autonomous vehicles and ADAS systems.

A summary of Dale’s and Tara’s papers, presentations, and other participation in leading conferences relating to autonomous products, including those directed by artificial intelligence can be found in the biographical section of this website.

Some of the most significant activity arising from genetic modifications is within the genetically modified food products arena, including that activity involving products intended for animal consumption and those that are intended for direct human consumption, and within the arena of genetically created, modified or enhanced pharmaceuticals.

Obviously, there are vast differences between genetically modified products and other types of autonomous products discussed on this website that rely on man-coded algorithms or artificial intelligence for their decision-making frameworks. Genetically modified products do not “make decisions.” The “decisions” are naturally coded in the genes. There are, however, some overlapping attacks that plaintiffs’ trial lawyers will make on genetically modified products that will also be made relative to the other types of autonomous products discussed on this website, and there will be a great deal of overlap between such product groups relative to available defensive approaches in product liability cases.

Plaintiffs’ trial lawyers, and their paid experts will attack virtually all key decisions made by the manufacturers of genetically modified products, particularly decisions made relative to the design and marketing of any genetically modified food product used either for direct consumption by humans or for indirect consumption by humans through consumption of animal food sources. Such plaintiffs’ trial lawyers and their paid experts will also attack pharmaceutical manufacturers relative to every bio-genetically engineered pharmaceutical product, no matter what benefits such products provide to humanity.

How We Can Help

Designers and manufacturers must begin to prepare their defensive responses to the unjustified attacks now, and they must engage a team of genetically modified/advanced pharmaceutical product defenders. Those defenders must certainly be experienced trial lawyers, but perhaps as importantly, they must be trial lawyers who focus time and energy on the types of products and technical design and marketing issues that will predominate in the new product liability world of genetically modified and advanced pharmaceutical products, and on what can best be done now to respond to the upcoming unjustified attacks. Such a team must also include appropriate experts, for the new genetically modified and advanced pharmaceutical products era allegations, and Markland Hanley can assist in locating appropriate experts and putting the best possible expert team together.

Markland Hanley’s product liability attorneys have decades of experience consulting with product manufacturers relative to potential product liability risks and defending product manufacturers in product liability litigation.  Markland Hanley presently focuses its practice on consulting with and defending in product liability lawsuits, manufacturers of autonomous and other advanced products, including genetically modified products and advanced pharmaceutical products.

Markland Hanley’s lawyers have defended hundreds of high-risk product liability cases. We have defended manufacturers in the most serious cases, including those involving death, quadriplegia, paraplegia, brain and nervous system injury, amputations, and severe burns.

Dale Markland is a prolific author and speaker in the field of defense of autonomous products, including autonomous vehicles and ADAS systems.  He was the only product liability lawyer asked to present at and be a Keynote Speaker at the Vehicle and Connected Services Conference 2019 in Gothenburg, Sweden, Europe’s premier conference related to autonomous vehicles.  Dale founded and served as one of the two initial co-heads of the Autonomous Vehicles and Products Action Group of PLAC (formerly the Products Liability Advisory Council, Inc.).

Tara Hanley has also authored and presented in the field of defense of autonomous products, including autonomous vehicles and ADAS systems.

A summary of Dale’s and Tara’s papers, presentations, and other participation in leading conferences relating to autonomous products can be found in the biographical section of this website.

Markland Hanley has defended hundreds of product liability cases, including cases involving allegations of defective design, manufacture, and/or marketing against manufacturers of automobiles, heavy trucks, buses, tractors, other heavy mobile equipment, pharmaceuticals, other farming and industrial equipment, plastics and chemical products, tires, HVAC systems, oil field equipment, and vehicle components, including seatbelts, advanced restraint systems, rollover protection systems, seats, brakes, and fuel and electrical systems, among others, and including many types of toxic torts.

Markland Hanley’s founders have particularly extensive experience defending truck manufacturers in product liability cases.

Markland Hanley’s founders also have significant experience in the following practice areas

  • Computer, computer chip, and other high technology litigation
  • General personal injury litigation
  • Complex commercial litigation, including business torts and breach of contract
  • Defamation litigation
  • Litigation involving injuries to business and personal reputation, including internet reputation injury and product disparagement litigation
  • Discrimination litigation
  • Sexual harassment litigation
  • Representation of artists and companies in the video game and motion picture industries, entertainers, and advertising industry artists
  • Environmental injury litigation
  • Childcare, daycare and other care facility liability