Florida Product Liability Lawyers

Our product liability lawyers will help you recover compensation if a defective or dangerous product has injured you. The attorneys at Swope, Rodante, Newsome & Steinberg have more than 45 years of experience holding manufacturers accountable for defective products across Florida. Call (813) 273-0017 for a free consultation. Our products liability attorneys work on a contingency fee basis.

We represent injured people and families statewide, including Tampa Bay, Orlando, Miami, and Jacksonville. If you are searching for a product liability law firm near you anywhere in Florida, our trial attorneys can evaluate your case and explain your options.

Key Takeaways

• If a defective or unsafe product injured you, a product liability attorney can help you recover compensation.
• Most product defect claims fall into three categories: design defects, manufacturing defects, and failure to warn.
• Florida recognizes several legal theories, including strict liability, negligence, and breach of warranty.
• Manufacturers, component makers, distributors, wholesalers, and retailers can all be held liable.
• Deadlines are short and evidence disappears fast, so contact a Florida defective product attorney early.

What Is Product Liability?

Product liability is the area of law that holds manufacturers, distributors, and retailers responsible for injuries caused by defective or unreasonably dangerous products. Most product defect claims involve one of three defect types: a design defect, a manufacturing defect, or a failure to warn. The product can be a car, a medical device, or an everyday household appliance.

The key question is whether a defect caused the injury and which companies in the product’s design, manufacture, or distribution are responsible.

Florida law recognizes strict product liability for injuries caused by defective products. In Aubin v. Union Carbide Corp., the Florida Supreme Court reaffirmed the consumer-expectations test as a principal standard in Florida design-defect cases.

A single defective products case can also involve more than one legal theory. Depending on the facts, the claims may include strict liability, negligence, breach of warranty, or failure to warn. For an injured person, the starting point is simpler. What was wrong with the product, and how did that problem cause the injury? The answer usually begins with the design, the manufacturing, or the warnings that came with it.

What Qualifies as a Defective Product in Florida?

There are 3 types of product defects under Florida law: Design Defects, Manufacturing Defects, and Marketing Defects (Failure to Warn).

Design Defects

A design defect exists before the product ever reaches the assembly line. The product may be built exactly to its specifications and still expose users to unreasonable danger because of a decision made during the design process.

A vehicle roof that performs as engineered but fails to protect occupants in a foreseeable rollover is one example. So is machinery that permits dangerous movement without an effective guard. Design-defect litigation examines the engineering behind those choices, including foreseeable uses, testing, known hazards, and whether a safer alternative design existed.

Manufacturing Defects

A manufacturing defect happens when a finished product departs from an otherwise safe design because something went wrong during production. Common causes include improper materials, contamination, faulty assembly, weak bonding, and inadequate quality control.

A design problem affects every unit built to the same specifications. A manufacturing defect may affect only one unit, one batch, one supplier, or one production run. Investigating it involves the physical product, the specifications, exemplar products, and quality-control records.

Failure to Warn

Some products carry risks that design cannot fully eliminate. In those cases, manufacturers have a duty to provide adequate warnings and safe-use instructions. A failure-to-warn case looks past whether a sticker or manual paragraph existed. It examines what the manufacturer knew about the hazard, when it knew it, how serious the danger was, and whether the warning reached the user in a clear and effective way. Information learned after a product reaches the market, such as complaints and reported injuries, can also matter.

Discuss your situation with a product liability lawyer to determine whether the device, equipment, or appliance that caused your injury could be considered defective. If so, you may be able to recover compensation for your injury from the manufacturer or seller responsible. Call (813) 273-0017 for a free consultation and case evaluation to determine whether you have a valid product liability claim. Our defective product attorneys and personal injury lawyers work on a contingency fee basis.

When is a Car Accident Also a Product Liability Claim?

A car accident becomes a product liability claim when a defect made the injuries far worse than the accident alone would explain. Another driver may cause a collision, but a defective seat, seat belt, airbag, roof, or fuel system can turn a survivable crash into a fatal one. The at-fault driver explains why the crash happened. The defective product may explain why the injuries were catastrophic.

A strong investigation asks two questions. Why did the crash or rollover happen? How did the vehicle protect the people inside once it did? That second question is what engineers call crashworthiness.

A vehicle’s safety systems work together. A seat belt cannot do its job if the seat behind it collapses. An airbag is less effective if the occupant is no longer in position. Severe roof deformation in a rollover changes both the survival space and the way the restraint holds the occupant. One failure can compromise another. That is why automotive product cases often require engineers and accident reconstructionists to evaluate the vehicle as a complete system, not just the first damaged part.

The more violent the collision, the easier it is to assume the injuries were unavoidable. The physical evidence sometimes tells a different story. An ejected occupant who was wearing a seat belt, a roof that caves in, a seat that collapses, or a fire that starts after a survivable impact are all reasons to preserve the vehicle and investigate.

Who Can Be Held Responsible for a Defective Product?

Any company in the chain of design, manufacture, or distribution can be held responsible for a defective product, not just the brand on the label. A product passes through many hands before it reaches you, and different companies control different parts of that process. Potentially responsible parties include:

• The company that designed the product
• The manufacturer of the finished product
• The manufacturer of a defective component
• Assemblers, distributors, and wholesalers
• The retailer that sold it

Modern products are rarely built by one company. A vehicle maker buys airbags, tires, restraints, and electronics from outside suppliers. When one component fails, identifying the designer and manufacturer requires tracing the part through the supply chain.

More than one company can share responsibility. A defective tire could start a rollover while a weak roof or restraint contributes to the injuries. The investigation has to be broad enough to find every company whose conduct contributed to the failure.

How Are Product Liability Cases Investigated?

A product liability case is investigated by preserving the product, proving how and why it failed, identifying every responsible company, and building the damages case alongside the technical proof. For clients, this shows what experienced product counsel actually does. For referring attorneys, it flags the issues to address early, before evidence disappears.

Preserve the Product Before It Is Altered or Destroyed

The product itself is usually the most important evidence in the case. A damaged vehicle shows how the roof, seats, belts, and airbags performed. A failed tire can hold evidence of tread separation. A burned appliance can reveal the origin of a fire. The evidence can disappear fast. Vehicles are salvaged for parts, machines are repaired, and consumer products are discarded. Try to preserve the product in its post-accident condition.

Determining How and Why the Product Failed

The next step is figuring out exactly what happened. Your lawyer will work with experts to investigate by inspecting the product, performing tests with similar products, looking at photos, analyzing electronic data, and reviewing records. In a car accident case, reconstructionists determine how the crash occurred and whether the safety system or any other automotive parts malfunctioned.

Examining Design, Testing, and Prior-Failure Records

A product leaves a paper trail long before it reaches the consumer. Design drawings, test results, and safety analyses show what hazards the designers considered. Company records may show that engineers weighed a safer design or changed the product after it reached the market. The investigation also asks whether the failure was isolated by looking for prior complaints, warranty claims, similar lawsuits, technical service bulletins, regulatory investigations, and recalls. One complaint proves little, but a history of similar failures can show what the manufacturer knew.

Compare the Product with Safer Alternatives

In Aubin, the Florida Supreme Court ruled that plaintiffs aren’t required to prove that a safer alternative design was available. However, a design-defect case can be made stronger by finding ways the manufacturer could have made the product safer, typically by comparing the unsafe device with the design of competing products. Presenting ways that the product could have been designed differently to reduce or eliminate the danger can highlight the dangerous design to the jury.

Determining the Personal Injury Case Damages

Proving a product is defective is only part of a product liability case. The claim must also establish the economic and non-economic damages caused by the injury, including the costs of medical care and lost earning capacity. Our lawyers have extensive experience building life care plans to obtain multi-million dollar verdicts and settlements for individuals who have been injured.

Does a Product Have to Be Recalled to Be Defective?

No, a product does not have to be recalled to be defective. A recall provides useful information about a known safety problem, but the absence of a recall does not prove a product is safe or eliminate a product defect claim. Safety problems usually surface before a formal recall, through consumer reports, warranty claims, injuries, and litigation.

Federal agencies track many of these issues. NHTSA investigates vehicle safety defects, the CPSC covers consumer products, and the FDA monitors medical devices. These databases are useful, but they do not answer every question. A defect may affect only a small production run, or a manufacturer may hold information that is not yet public. The investigation should focus on the product and the evidence, not just on whether the model appears in a recall database.

Can One Product Liability Case Affect Others?

Yes, a single product liability case can uncover a defect that reaches far beyond the first person injured. An individual case can expose a widespread problem that leads to recalls, class action litigation, or mass tort claims. In the Takata airbag case, for example, investigation of individual inflator ruptures helped reveal a defect that produced one of the largest automotive recalls in history. Product litigation is always about the person who was injured, but when the same danger exists in other products, one case can help protect many more people.

Why Choose Swope, Rodante, Newsome & Steinberg for your Product Liability Case

The most serious product cases rarely involve only one problem. A products liability case can include complex questions about corporate discovery, expert testimony, evidence admissibility, insurance coverage, and appellate issues. The attorneys at Swope, Rodante, Newsome & Steinberg bring expertise in all of those areas to one coordinated litigation team.

National Product Liability Success

Product cases are easy to miss when the defect is buried inside a larger accident. Our attorneys’ experience helps recognize those issues early, whether the case involves a rollover, tire failure, airbag, restraint system, or post-collision fire.

Proven Track Record in Catastrophic Injury Litigation

A strong defect case is incomplete if it fails to prove the full cost of the injury. For more than four decades, our law firm has represented individuals and families in catastrophic injury and wrongful death cases. That work includes developing evidence of future medical care, rehabilitation, lost earning capacity, and the long-term effect on the injured person and family.

Trial Experience and the Resources to Fight Large Companies

Manufacturers and their insurers spend heavily to defend these cases, retaining teams of lawyers, engineers, and experts for years of discovery. Swope, Rodante, Newsome & Steinberg has the experience and financial resources to make the same long-term commitment. We have the resources to build the strongest case possible, rather than letting litigation costs dictate strategy. Our firm prepares significant cases with trial in mind, preparing our litigation and appellate strategy from the beginning of the case.

Experts in Complex Insurance Coverage Issues

Product cases can raise insurance questions separate from the defect itself. Dale Swope and Angela Rodante have extensive experience with complex insurance and bad-faith issues in Florida’s trial and appellate courts. That experience matters when coverage, multiple defendants, or collectability affect the case and the ultimate ability to recover for the client.

In-House Appellate Strategy From the Start

Appellate work in a major case begins long before anyone files an appeal. Decisions about expert testimony, evidence, and jury instructions shape the record an appellate court will later review. Brent Steinberg is a Florida Bar Board Certified Appellate Lawyer, so appellate strategy is available while the record is still being built, not only after a verdict.

Award-Winning Legal Team and National Recognition

Our attorneys have earned national and statewide recognition for trial practice, appellate advocacy, and insurance law. Rich Newsome is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, inducted in 2022. Dale Swope has been Board Certified in Civil Trial Law by The Florida Bar since 1992, and Brent Steinberg has been Board Certified in Appellate Practice since 2022. Angela Rodante has belonged to the American College of Coverage Counsel since 2019. Both Dale Swope and Rich Newsome are past presidents of the Florida Justice Association, Swope in 2017-2018 and Newsome in 2010-2011. Our attorneys have also received repeated recognition from Best Lawyers, Super Lawyers, and Martindale-Hubbell, with several holding AV Preeminent ratings and membership in the American Board of Trial Advocates.

Decades of Experience in Product Safety Litigation

Rich Newsome has decades of experience representing injured people and families in complex civil litigation. Much of his practice has been devoted to product liability and automotive safety. He served as an Assistant United States Attorney and later practiced product-liability defense before moving to the plaintiff side. As a plaintiff’s attorney, his work has included cases against major manufacturers involving catastrophic injuries and wrongful death.

Automotive safety runs through that work. Newsome has handled cases involving tires, airbags, and vehicle crashworthiness, and he has written about motor-vehicle defects and manufacturers’ responsibilities after a product reaches the market. His published work includes “Post-Sale Negligence Claims in Florida Motor Vehicle Defect Cases,” co-authored with William Ourand and published in the Florida Justice Association Journal’s Products Liability Section in 2015.

Newsome represented Corey Burdick after a ruptured Takata airbag inflator caused a serious eye injury. The American Association for Justice named C. Richard Newsome, Corey Burdick, and Kaylee Burdick the 2015 recipients of its Steven J. Sharp Public Service Award for advocacy surrounding the Takata matter. Newsome is a graduate of the Gerry Spence Trial Lawyers College and has served on the faculty. He founded and serves on the board of Trial School, an organization that provides continuing education for lawyers.

What Injuries are Common in Defective Product Cases?

A defective product can cause all kinds of injuries. The most common injuries in defective product lawsuits are:

• Burns and electrocution
• Traumatic brain injuries
• Spinal cord injuries and paralysis
• Amputations and loss of limbs
• Blindness and other eye injuries
• Organ and neurological damage
• Permanent orthopedic disability
• Wrongful death

At Swope, Rodante, Newsome & Steinberg, we are known for our success in cases involving catastrophic injuries and wrongful death. The injury often tells us something about how the product performed. A spinal cord injury after a rollover raises questions about roof strength and restraints. Severe burns after a survivable collision point to the fuel or electrical system. An ejection calls for a closer look at seat belts, doors, and windows.

The financial consequences of a catastrophic injury do not end at discharge. A younger person with a life-changing injury may need decades of treatment, rehabilitation, attendant care, equipment, and help with daily activities. Proving those future needs takes an understanding of what the injury will require years ahead, not just what has already been spent.

What Compensation Is Available in a Product Liability Case?

A product liability case can recover compensation for medical care, lost income, disability, pain and suffering, and other losses caused by the defect. In a catastrophic-injury case, those losses can continue for decades, and future damages are often the largest part of the claim. A claim can seek:

• Past and future medical expenses
• Rehabilitation and therapy
• Future attendant or nursing care
• Medical equipment and assistive technology
• Home or vehicle modifications
• Lost wages and lost future earning capacity
• Pain and suffering
• Physical impairment and disability

When a defective product causes a death, surviving family members and the estate may have claims under Florida’s wrongful-death laws. Economists, physicians, life-care planners, and vocational experts help establish future losses when appropriate. Punitive damages are available only in certain cases and depend on the facts and applicable law, and evidence about what a manufacturer knew and how it responded can make them relevant.

Most defective products litigation resolves through a settlement, but our firm approaches every case with litigation strategy in mind. Our trial lawyers are known for their tenacity and willingness to go to trial when necessary to obtain fair compensation for our clients.

What Should You Do If You Suspect a Defective Product?

If you suspect a defective product caused an injury, preserve the product in its post-accident condition and contact a product liability lawyer before anything is repaired, returned, or destroyed. As explained in the investigation section above, the product itself is often the most important evidence, and it disappears quickly. A few steps protect it.

Do not throw away, repair, dismantle, or return the product, and preserve any component that broke or separated from it. After a serious crash, an insurer may declare a vehicle a total loss and dispose of it, so act quickly to keep it from being sold or crushed before an engineer can inspect it. Keep the box, manual, warnings, receipts, and any label or serial number that identifies the exact product and production run. Save photographs and video of the product, the scene, the failed component, and the injuries, and identify any dash-camera or surveillance footage before it is overwritten.

You do not need to know exactly what was defective before you call. An unusual ejection, rollover, fire, tire failure, airbag injury, or machine malfunction can be enough to justify a closer look. Early involvement gives a product liability lawyer the chance to preserve evidence before it is lost.

What are Common Causes of Product Liability Lawsuits?

Almost any product can cause a serious injury lawsuit when it fails in a dangerous way. Swope, Rodante, Newsome & Steinberg investigates dangerous product claims involving automobiles, recreational vehicles, industrial equipment, medical devices, and consumer products tied to catastrophic injury or death. The most complex cases involve products whose components and safety systems demand deep technical review.

Car and Motor Vehicle Defects

Modern cars and commercial vehicles rely on interconnected systems built to prevent crashes and protect occupants during them. Defects can involve steering, brakes, seats, structure, tires, airbags, seat belts, electronics, and fuel systems. Some defects cause the crash. Others make it far more dangerous once it begins. A manufacturer’s badge sits on the hood, but another company may have supplied the failed part. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration investigates vehicle safety defects and maintains federal recall information.

Defective Tires

A tire is the vehicle’s only connection to the road, so a sudden failure at highway speed puts everyone nearby at risk. Tire cases involve tread separation, belt separation, weak bonding, deterioration, and other structural problems. A tire failure can also expose other defects. If the vehicle rolls after the tire fails, the investigation moves on to the roof, seat belts, and occupant containment.

Defective Airbags

An airbag is part of a larger occupant-protection system, and when it fails, that system can leave a person unprotected or cause injury itself. Airbag defects include failure to deploy, unexpected deployment, overly aggressive deployment, faulty sensors, and inflator ruptures that send metal fragments into the cabin. The Takata recalls showed the scale a component defect can reach. NHTSA reports that roughly 67 million Takata airbags were recalled in the United States because the inflators can rupture during deployment.

Seat Belts and Occupant Restraints

Seat belts are complex systems, and a failure can involve buckles, latches, retractors, pretensioners, anchors, or webbing. The investigation asks whether the belt stayed latched, whether excessive slack developed, and whether the restraint controlled the occupant’s movement. These questions matter most after an ejection, a serious brain or spinal injury, or unexpected occupant movement.

Car Rollovers and Roof Crush

A rollover raises questions about the vehicle before, during, and after it overturns. Why did it roll? Did the restraint keep occupants in place? Did the roof preserve survival space? A roof that collapses into the passenger compartment, or an occupant who is partially ejected, can point to problems with structure, restraints, or occupant containment.

Vehicle Fires and Fuel Systems

A survivable collision can turn deadly when a vehicle catches fire. Fire cases involve fuel-tank design and location, fuel lines, electrical systems, and batteries. Electric and hybrid vehicles add questions about high-voltage energy storage. The investigation focuses on the fire’s origin and whether the vehicle offered reasonable protection against a foreseeable post-collision fire.

Vehicle Rollaway and Keyless Ignition

Some defects involve how drivers interact with electronic controls. A vehicle that moves after the driver believes it is in park can crush or strike people. Keyless-ignition systems have raised concerns when a vehicle keeps running unnoticed, creating a carbon monoxide risk in enclosed spaces. These cases combine mechanical systems, electronics, and foreseeable human behavior.

ATVs, UTVs, and Recreational Vehicles

All-terrain vehicles, side-by-sides, and other recreational vehicles expose riders to strong forces in a rollover. Investigations focus on stability, steering and braking, occupant containment, restraints, and rollover protection. A key question is whether the design accounts for the hazards of foreseeable use.

Commercial Trucks

A commercial-vehicle crash can involve more than driver or company negligence. Defective tires, brakes, steering, coupling systems, and trailer components can cause a crash or worsen it. Construction and agricultural equipment raise similar issues. Here, negligence and product-liability claims often exist side by side.

Industrial Machinery and Power Tools

Industrial equipment can cause devastating injuries when workers are hurt by unguarded moving parts, crush points, or dangerous errors. Common problems include missing guards, ineffective emergency stops, unintended activation, and missing or poorly written safety instructions.

Defective Medical Devices

Medical devices such as implants and electronically controlled equipment. Claims arise from low quality components, manufacturing mistakes, breakage, software errors, and missing warnings about known risks. Medical-device litigation also raises regulatory issues that differ from other cases. The FDA regulates these devices and publishes recalls, safety communications, and adverse-event reports.

Household Appliances and Consumer Products

Everyday products can cause catastrophic injuries when a design or component fails. Appliances, heaters, batteries, chargers, and cooking equipment can produce fires, explosions, shocks, and severe burns. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission protects the public from unreasonable risks across thousands of consumer products and publishes recalls and safety information useful to any investigation.

Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Detectors

Detectors must work when a dangerous condition arises. Failures can involve sensors, batteries, power systems, or alarm mechanisms. After a fire or carbon monoxide poisoning, preserving and testing the detector helps show whether it worked and whether its failure contributed to the harm.

Children’s Products, Toys, and Furniture

Products made for children must account for predictable child behavior. Defects can create choking, strangulation, and entrapment hazards, furniture tip-over risks, and exposure to dangerous materials. The Consumer Product Safety Commission investigates children’s product hazards and publishes recalls when products present identified risks.

Information for Referring Attorneys

Some of the strongest product cases arrive as something else. A crash looks like clear driver liability. A workplace injury looks like an employer issue. Then the evidence does not fit. The injuries seem out of proportion to the collision, a restrained occupant was ejected, a roof collapsed, or a machine behaved in a way no one expected. Those are cases worth a second look.

Consider involving a product liability lawyer when a serious injury or death involves a tire failure, a rollover, an ejection, a roof or seat failure, a seat belt that appeared not to restrain the occupant, an airbag that failed or deployed unexpectedly, a post-collision fire, unexplained acceleration or braking, an ATV or UTV rollover, industrial machinery, a failed safety guard, a fire involving a battery or appliance, or a medical device failure. You do not need to prove the defect first. Often the reason to make the call is to find out whether a viable product claim exists at all.

The one step that matters most before the theory is developed is preserving the evidence, as described above. Once the vehicle is crushed or the product is discarded, even the right experts may not be able to answer questions that an inspection could have resolved. When a product claim exists, our firm brings product-liability, catastrophic-injury, trial, insurance, and appellate experience to the case while working alongside the referring attorney.

Frequently Asked Questions About Product Liability

How do I know if I have a product liability case?

You may have a product liability case if a defective or unexpectedly dangerous product caused your injury, and a free consultation is the best way to find out. You do not have to prove the defect first. If a product malfunctioned, failed, or behaved in an unusual way before you were hurt, that warrants investigation. Your lawyer then gathers information about the product, the manufacturer, and similar incidents.

Does the product have to be recalled for me to file a lawsuit?

No, you can file a product liability lawsuit whether or not the product was recalled. Manufacturers and regulators usually issue a recall only after multiple incidents reveal a broader problem. If a recall does exist, it can strengthen your claim, especially when other people were injured the same way.

What if another person caused the accident?

You can still have a product liability claim. Another driver’s negligence might cause a collision while a defective seat belt, airbag, roof, or fuel system makes the injuries far worse. More than one person or company can share legal responsibility for the same injury.

What if I no longer have the product?

Losing the product makes a case harder but does not always end it. Photographs, purchase records, model and serial numbers, accident evidence, exemplar products, and manufacturer records may still be available. An attorney should review what evidence remains before assuming the case cannot proceed.

What if the product was old or bought used?

Age or prior ownership does not automatically defeat a product liability claim. The investigation considers the product’s condition, maintenance, alterations, expected useful life, and the nature of the alleged defect.

What if I used the product differently than the instructions said?

That does not automatically end the case. The way the product was used, whether that use was reasonably foreseeable, and the warnings provided all become part of the analysis. The specific facts have to be evaluated.

Can I bring a claim if the defective product belonged to my employer?

Yes. If a defective product injured you at work, you can pursue a product liability claim against the manufacturer or another responsible party. That claim is separate from any workers’ compensation benefits you may also receive. Defective machinery and equipment are a common cause of workplace injuries, and the manufacturer can be held liable for medical bills and other damages.

How long do I have to file a product liability lawsuit in Florida?

In Florida, you generally have four years from the date of injury to file a product liability lawsuit. If the claim is based on negligence, the two-year statute of limitations may apply for incidents occurring after March 24, 2023.

However, there are exceptions and factors that can extend the deadline, so you might still have a case even if more than four years have passed.

Consult with a lawyer as soon as possible to determine what deadlines apply in your situation.

How much does it cost to hire a product liability lawyer?

Swope, Rodante, Newsome & Steinberg handles product liability cases on a contingency fee basis, which means we only get paid if we recover compensation for you. We advance the costs of litigation, so our clients can pursue justice while we bear the financial risk.

Can a lawyer refer a product case without knowing there is a defect?

Yes. Experienced product liability lawyers are often brought in because a referring attorney spotted something unusual but does not yet know whether the evidence supports a claim. Early consultation also allows the product to be preserved before that question can no longer be answered.

Talk to a Florida Product Liability Lawyer

You do not need to know exactly what failed before contacting us. If a vehicle, tire, airbag, restraint system, machine, recreational vehicle, appliance, or medical device may have caused a catastrophic injury or death, our lawyers can evaluate the circumstances and decide whether further investigation is warranted.

Swope, Rodante, Newsome & Steinberg has the product-liability experience, catastrophic-injury experience, trial lawyers, appellate capability, and financial resources to take on major manufacturers. We represent clients throughout Florida, including Tampa, Orlando, Miami, and Jacksonville. Call (813) 273-0017 for a free consultation.

References

Florida Statutes § 95.031(2)(b) – Florida Statutes § 95.031(2)(b) establishes the Statute of Repose for Products Liability actions. The statute of repose in defective product cases varies depending on the type of product, how it is used, and its expected lifetime. It can also be extended in cases involving fraud and other circumstances.

Florida Statutes § 95.11(3)(d) – Florida Statutes § 95.11(3)(d) establishes a four-year statute of limitations for “an action for injury to a person founded on the design, manufacture, distribution, or sale of personal property that is not permanently incorporated in an improvement to real property, including fixtures.”