Defective Drug Injury Lawyers Serving New York City & Long Island

Possibly. Every drug carries some risk, so a side effect alone is not enough. Under New York law, a claim generally requires showing the drug was defective in one of three ways: it was contaminated or made improperly (manufacturing defect), its risks outweighed its benefits when a safer design was feasible (design defect), or the company failed to adequately warn about a risk it knew or should have known about (failure to warn). You must also show the defect caused your injury, which usually requires medical records and expert review.

The manufacturer is usually the main defendant, but New York's strict liability rules can also reach others in the chain of distribution, such as distributors and, in some cases, pharmacies or compounding pharmacies that altered or mislabeled the drug. Responsibility depends on what went wrong. A manufacturing error points to the plant that made the batch, while a warning problem points to the company responsible for the label. Generic drugs raise special issues, because federal law can limit some claims against generic manufacturers.

In almost every case, yes. Drug injury claims turn on medical causation: proof that the medication, and not an underlying illness or another cause, more likely than not caused your condition. That proof typically comes from your treating physicians' records and from independent medical or scientific experts who review studies, adverse event data, and your history. Keep a list of every medication you took, with dates and doses, and request your pharmacy records early, since they help establish exactly what you were given.

It depends on when the injury appeared and when it was discovered. In New York, most product injury claims must be filed within three years of the injury. For injuries caused by the latent effects of exposure to a substance, such as a cancer that develops years later, the three years generally runs from when you discovered the injury, or reasonably should have. These rules have exceptions and the dates are easy to miscalculate, so an early review protects your options.