The public outcry over Chrysler and General Motors Corp. declaring bankruptcy and leaving vehicle owners high and dry on liability claims has been loud and intense, but new reports surfacing from GM indicate it has been heard ... to a degree. Product liability had become the albatross around GM's neck as it sought to become a new company with a fresh start, unhindered by personal injury and death claims attached to the very cars it once produced.

They are all different ages and come from a variety of backgrounds, but they share two things in common: they or someone they love has been injured or killed because they were passengers in Chrysler vehicles -- cars with known design defects or faulty components. They have also lost their ability to hold Chrysler legally accountable for all of the injuries and deaths that could have been avoided.

Beasley Allen attorney J. Cole Portis has filed a lawsuit for an Alabama woman whose husband was killed in a vehicular rollover accident while driving his 1993 Geo Tracker. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama Northern Division, and names as Defendants Suzuki Motor Corporation; American Suzuki Motor Corporation; General Motors; General Motors of Canada, Ltd.; Cami Automotive Inc.; Takata Inc.; Takata-Fischer Corporation; Takata Fabrication Corporation; and Key Safety Restraint Sysytems, Inc.

Medical device maker Medtronic sent a letter to doctors worldwide earlier this month warning that nearly 37,000 of its Sigma and Kappa pacemakers, most manufactured between November 2000 and November 2002, could have faulty wiring that can cause the pacemakers to work improperly or not at all. This defect can be deadly for the estimated 1.7 million people who have the pacemakers implanted in their chests.

The Ford Pinto is a car that became notoriously associated with fuel-fed crash fires in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when the compact vehicle showed a propensity for catching fire when involved in even low-speed crashes. In 1977, an internal memo revealed that Ford was aware of design problems with the Pinto that made it more susceptible to crash-related fires, but that it had deemed the overall benefits of redesigning the automobile - which included preventing an average of 180 deaths each year - to be not worth the cost - an estimated $11 per automobile.

All Yamaha Rhino 450 and 660 model vehicles were recalled for repairs designed to prevent accidents that resulted in 46 deaths and hundreds of injuries. The reported deaths occurred between the fall of 2003, when the vehicles were first distributed, through this year.

In 2006, the U.S. Consumer watchdog group Public Citizen published results of dynamic roof crush tests comparing the performance of a Volvo XC90s and a Ford Explorer in realistic rollovers. American roof crush standards have not changed since then and unfortunately those results are as valid today as they were in 2006.

Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C., has been retained by the family of a deceased bridge worker who was killed in a bridge collapse on October 30, 2008 on I-10 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Eric Troy Blackmon, a long time employee of Boh Bros. Construction, was a foreman on the new Twin Span Bridge being built between Slidell and New Orleans, Louisiana.

Attorneys seek testimony of Goodyear's employee and lawyers.

A product liability claim focuses on whether or not the product is defective. In automobile cases, the defective product could be the entire vehicle, or a component part such as the seat belt assembly or tires. Unfortunately, the average motorist has no idea how unprotected he will be in an accident as a driver or passenger in one of these defective vehicles. Often, causes of action for product liability claims are hidden from the untrained eye.