Product liability lawyer
Shalhoub Law Injury & Accident represents people injured by defective products in West Palm Beach and throughout Palm Beach County. That includes the deadlines that apply to product claims, including the twelve-year rule. Attorney Paul R. Shalhoub spent years defending insurance companies before he began representing injured people, and he handles every case himself, from the first call through trial.
Defective vehicles, tools, appliances, children's products and medical devices.
The demand is built around what actually moves a file, because Paul spent the early part of his career on the other side of it.
Reach us
Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Calls answered 24 hours
Phone: (561) 208-5058
Email: info@shalhoubinjurylaw.com
What this claim involves
Who is responsible
A product claim can be brought against the manufacturer, the distributor and the retailer, and it does not require proof that anyone was careless.
What it is worth
Medical bills, lost income, future care and the part that is not on a receipt. How value is calculated →
How long you have
Two years for most Florida negligence claims. Florida injury deadlines →
What does it cost to hire a lawyer?
Nothing up front. The fee is contingent on winning or settling the case.
A product claim is not on the two-year clock
The 2023 reform cut most injury deadlines to two years. This one stayed at four.
HB 837 shortened the general negligence period in s. 95.11(5)(a) to two years, and that is the number everyone now repeats. But s. 95.11 is arranged by length rather than by subject, and an action for injury founded on the design, manufacture, distribution or sale of personal property sits in s. 95.11(3)(d) — the four-year subsection. HB 837 did not move it.
That matters because people talk themselves out of these claims. Someone hurt by a defective tool at twenty-six months reads that Florida is two years now, assumes it is over, and never calls. The claim may have had four years all along. If a product caused the injury, the deadline is worth confirming before anyone concludes it has passed.
The twelve-year rule that ends claims before they start
A separate clock, running from delivery rather than from injury.
Florida also has a statute of repose for products, and it works differently from a limitations period. A limitations period runs from when you were hurt. Repose runs from when the product was delivered, and it can expire before anyone is injured at all.
| The general rule | s. 95.031(2)(b): no products liability action where the harm was caused by a product with an expected useful life of 10 years or less, if the exposure or use occurred more than 12 years after delivery to its first purchaser or lessee |
| The presumption | All products except the listed categories are conclusively presumed to have an expected useful life of 10 years or less. That presumption is the default, and it is not rebuttable |
| Warranted longer life | Where a manufacturer specifically warranted, through express representation or labeling, a useful life exceeding 10 years, the period follows what was warranted, or 12 years from delivery, whichever is later. The label on the product can extend your rights |
| Not subject to it at all | Commercial aircraft, vessels over 100 gross tons, commercial railroad equipment, and improvements to real property including elevators and escalators |
| Twenty years | For those same listed products other than elevators, escalators and real property improvements, the period is 20 years from delivery |
Two provisions push the other way, and both are worth knowing because they are easy to miss.
Under s. 95.031(2)(c), the repose bar does not apply where the claimant was exposed to or used the product inside the period but the injury did not appear until afterwards — the latent injury case.
And under s. 95.031(2)(d), the period is tolled while a manufacturer’s officers, directors, partners or managing agents actually knew of the defect and took affirmative steps to conceal it. Concealment has to be pleaded with specificity, and keeping a trade secret confidential does not count. It is a narrow door, but it is a real one, and it is the provision that matters in the cases where a company sat on what it knew.
Do you need a lawyer for a defective product?
An honest answer, including when it is no.
Where you probably do not. The product broke and nobody was hurt. That is a warranty or refund question for the retailer, and a product liability claim is the wrong and more expensive tool for it.
Where you probably do. Someone was injured, and the product still exists. These cases are built on the item itself, on engineering and on the manufacturer’s own records, which means they cost real money to develop and cannot be assembled after the fact. Also: there has been a recall, or you have found other reports of the same failure. The product was used at work, which raises whether a third party beyond workers’ compensation is responsible. Or the manufacturer has already asked you to return the item for inspection.
Do not send the product back. Not to the retailer, not to the manufacturer, not for a refund. Once it is gone the claim usually goes with it. Photograph it, keep it, keep the packaging and the receipt, and keep the parts that broke.
Related claims we handle
The practice is injury work only, so the neighboring claim types are handled in the same office by the same attorney. See every practice area
Car accidentsFlorida PIP pays first and rarely pays enough. We open the PIP claim, then pursue the at-fault driver's bodily injury coverage and your own uninsured motorist coverage.Learn more →
Truck accidentsBox trucks and tractor-trailers bring federal safety rules, driver logs and black-box data into the case. That evidence gets overwritten, so the preservation letter goes out early.Learn more →
Motorcycle accidentsRiders are blamed before anyone looks at the scene. We investigate first so the insurer cannot settle the case on its own version of events.Learn more →Common questions
Do I have a product liability case?
The call is free and Paul gives a straight answer, including when the answer is no.
How long do I have to file?
Two years from the injury for most Florida negligence claims under Florida Statute 95.11. Claims against a government body require written notice first and run on a different clock.
What does it cost to hire a lawyer?
Nothing up front. The fee is a percentage of the recovery. We advance case costs, and you owe no attorney’s fees or reimbursement of those costs unless we recover compensation for you.
Will I deal with Paul or with staff?
With Paul. He handles every case personally.
Talk to Paul, not a case manager
Consultations are free and confidential. We advance case costs, and you owe no attorney’s fees or reimbursement of those costs unless we recover compensation for you. Paul handles every case personally.