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Course Details

Course Information
  • smart_display Format

    On-Demand

  • signal_cellular_alt Difficulty Level

  • work Practice Area

    Personal Injury and Med Mal

Date & Time
  • event Date

    Wednesday, February 12, 2020

  • schedule Time

    1:00 p.m. ET./10:00 a.m. PT

  • timer Program Length

    90 minutes

Credit Information

  • This 90-minute webinar is eligible in most states for 1.5 CLE credits.

$197.00
CLE
ALL

This CLE course will deliver personal injury trial lawyers the necessary knowledge and tools to prevail for their clients on these common and tragic claims for injury and death. There are so many things that can go wrong with tires (a wide swath of installation and manufacturing issues) that manifest themselves in everything from explosions during inflation to tread separations leading to loss of control resulting in catastrophic accidents including rollovers.

Faculty

John Gsanger
Attorney
Ammons Law

Mr. Gsanger is a passionate and successful advocate for product safety. His nationwide law practice has achieved settlements that have resulted in recalls of defective tires, dangerous sports utility vehicles and caused manufacturers to disclose important safety warnings to consumers.

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Bruce Kaster
Attorney
Kaster Lynch Farrar & Ball, LLP

Mr. Kaster has served as technical advisor to state attorneys general in nationwide litigation against Firestone related to tread defects in Firestone ATX tires responsible for rollover crashes resulting in serious injuries and deaths. He has lectured to law enforcement, legal and civic groups and has appeared before Congress in efforts to protect the public from the dangerous consequences of tire tread failure.

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Description

Due to recent changes in reporting methodologies, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and has put the toll from tire injuries three times higher than initially thought. This change was no surprise to those who bring (and defend) these claims, as the most severe injuries (and deaths) have resulted in multimillion-dollar verdicts and settlements.

Key to the pursuit of a tire-related claim is an understanding of the many ways tires fail. Causes fall into two broad categories: tire design and manufacturing defects causing on-road tread separation failures and tire design defects in combination with inadequate warnings resulting in tire installation explosions. Installation issues include failure to test, improper mounting, choosing the wrong tire for the vehicle, under and over inflation, and a variety of others. Defects include issues with the design as well as material and process errors in manufacturing.

Trial attorneys must consider the proper defendants: manufacturer, seller, installer, and maintenance provider. Possible claims have elements of negligence, recklessness, and strict liability. If the defect at issue impacts an entire product line, class treatment could come into play. Finally, given the technical nature of the problem, expert testimony is absolutely required.

Listen as this experienced panel goes from the very beginnings of a claim (intake and demand) to the elements required to try the case successfully.

Outline

  1. Tire Mounting Failures
    1. Multipiece rim failures
    2. Mismatch tire rim failures
    3. Sidewall zipper failures
  2. Tread belt separations
    1. Collecting and preserving physical evidence
    2. Analysis of physical evidence
    3. Discovery
      1. Internal company documents
      2. Plant inspections and plant employees
      3. Public documents
      4. Depositions
  3. Settlement
  4. Trial

Benefits

This panel will review essential questions such as:

  • What level of technical expertise must a lawyer have to understand and bring tire claims?
  • What types of claims can be brought against what kinds of defendants?
  • Are there specialized areas of legal knowledge required to bring tire-related claims?