Law Offices of Steven W. Hansen

06/20/2025

the latest on CPSC reversing course again

Representing and acting as outside general counsel or claims administrator for manufacturers, distributors and retailers in product liability matters

05/07/2025

Given that I spend most of my hours involved in liability, release issues, bicycle accident cases, and government tort cases, I felt that this was a very significant case to discuss in the cycling community.
The case is Whitehead v. City of Oakland and was decided by the California supreme Court on May 1st, 2025. It was an appeal from the trial court that granted a summary judgment motion in favor of the City which was then upheld on appeal.

Representing and acting as outside general counsel or claims administrator for manufacturers, distributors and retailers in product liability matters

05/14/2022

While not strictly a product liability action but a Song Beverly Warranty action available to vehicle buyers in CA, Bowser v Ford Motor Co. (May 2022) exemplifies the problems with “bad” internal company emails being created as well as long threads which loop different people in and out of the thread and even loop in parties outside the corporate entity.

Representing and acting as outside general counsel or claims administrator for manufacturers, distributors and retailers in product liability matters

07/16/2021

The CPSC does not actually have the ability to "force" a US company to undertake a "voluntary recall". The vast majority of CPSC recalls are basically undertaken voluntarily. The degree of how voluntary or involuntary they are often depends on the nature of the safety problem, how widespread it is and also on the size of the company....

Representing and acting as outside general counsel or claims administrator for manufacturers, distributors and retailers in product liability matters

08/24/2020

California Court rules that Amazon does have liability for a defective product (Bolger v Amazon.com LLC)

By Steven W. Hansen, Esq.

An appeals court in California ruled Thursday that Amazon is not shielded from liability for defective products sold by third-party sellers through its online marketplace.
Nationally this California Appellate case is one of the first decided against Amazon holding them directly liable for a defective product sold on its marketplace. It remains to be seen what happens on somewhat similar cases pending in state and federal courts throughout the country. On a related issue, the California Legislature is considering a bill (AB-3262 Product liability: electronic retail marketplaces) that would treat “electronic retail marketplaces” like retailers for purposes of California strict liability law. The future of this bill is uncertain and most if not all of California law regarding product liability is case law not statutory law. read more here https://www.swhlaw.com/2020/08/california-court-rules-that-amazon-does.html

Representing and acting as outside general counsel or claims administrator for manufacturers, distributors and retailers in product liability matters

05/31/2019

https://www.swhlaw.com/2019/05/hearings-on-round-two-of-25-tariff.html

Representing and acting as outside general counsel or claims administrator for manufacturers, distributors and retailers in product liability matters

08/07/2018

Representing and acting as outside general counsel or claims administrator for manufacturers, distributors and retailers in product liability matters

02/11/2018

http://www.swhlaw.com/2018/02/in-what-may-be-first-gig-economy-case.html

Representing and acting as outside general counsel or claims administrator for manufacturers, distributors and retailers in product liability matters

09/18/2017

Representing and acting as contract general counsel for small to medium sized businesses

12/29/2016

Legislation affecting products, 2016, codes, laws, legislature, bills, California Governor Brown,

01/16/2016

January 15, 2016
The pitfalls of insurance coverage and additional insured certificates issued by Asian based non US admitted insurers
http://www.swhlaw.com/2016/01/the-pitfalls-of-insurance-coverage-and.html

04/22/2015

http://www.swhlaw.com/2015/04/letter-of-aafa-to-us-trade.html