Find Lawyers in Germany for Product Liability Litigation
Practice Area Overview
Product Liability Litigation forms a major category of commercial disputes in state courts (as opposed to Commercial Arbitration) where a customer that has allegedly suffered damages from a defective product seeks recourse against its producer or importer. In such cases, the alleged damages often exceed the value of the product substantially. In addition to the product being defective as such, customers may claim further damages that have followed from its malfunction.
Regularly Product Liability Litigation involves many parallel cases with a potentially unlimited number of claimants. Whether or not these claimants may be combined into one court proceeding against one defendant (class action) will depend on the national jurisdiction under which such claims are brought. Unlike in the United States, in Germany, for instance, there is no such thing as a class action in product liability cases, so that in principle all cases have to be litigated separately.
On the European level, the member states of the European Union have tried to alleviate the effects of the (international) fragmentation by introducing standardized product liability laws. However, national laws and particularities still have to be regarded. For example, in Germany, the courts have developed a sophisticated product liability scheme based on standard statutory law long before the European Legislation on the subject that remains in force to date.
In general, specialized lawyers will either act for producers and importers on the one hand, or on behalf of customers on the other. It is rather uncommon that specialized lawyers take cases for claimants and defendants alike. The reason is that acting for a producer or importer requires a very different skill set and law firm setup than acting on behalf of customers. While the latter requires a law firm to acquire as many potential claimants as possible and to deal with large numbers of often non-professional claimants, the former requires the ability defend a single corporate client against a large number of individuals in many individual cases.
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Björn Fiedler is the founder and managing partner of Fiedler Cryns-Moll FCM Rechtsanwaelte Partnerschaft, a Cologne-based law firm that focuses on representing and advising insurance companies in complex claims and specific insurance products (including directors and officers liability; errors and omissions coverage; professional indemnity; public offering of securities insurance; employment practices liability; representations and warranties; cyber; fidelity; and product liability). He ...
Founding partner of TCI Rechtsanwälte München Partner at Baker & McKenzie in Munich (2002 – 2007) Associate at Baker & McKenzie in Frankfurt a.M., Dallas/Texas and Munich (1997 – 2002) Dr.jur. University of Regensburg Bar admission 1995 Law clerkship in Regensburg University of Regensburg Law School
Since 2023: Kröck Dispute Resolution, founding partner 2003 - 2023: Dispute resolution boutique firm, Munich, partner 1997 - 2003: Major international law firm, Dispute Resolution, Munich, Berlin, London 1988 - 1996: University of Constance, legal clerkship at the Higher Regional Court of Stuttgart, Ph.D., additional studies at the College of Europe in Hamburg
Carsten Laschet is a lawyer and managing Partner of Friedrich Graf von Westphalen & Partner. His practice focuses on liability and insurance law. He specialises in contract law, product liability law, directors' and officers' liability as well as Insurance Law. Carsten Laschet is a lecturer in teaching specialist insurance lawyers and a member of the Cologne Legal Association (Kölner Juristische Gesellschaft), the German Bar Association’s Working Group on Insurance Law (ARGE Ve...
Tobias Lenz is a lawyer and partner at Friedrich Graf von Westphalen & Partner. In addition, he is a professor for national and international commercial law at the Rhineland University of Applied Sciences (Rheinische Fachhochschule) in Cologne and the director of the Institute for Liability and Insurance Law (Institut für Haftungs- und Versicherungsrecht). Tobias’ main focus lies on product liability and insurance law, liability of managing directors and execute board members, ...
Frank Meckes is both a German lawyer and a graduate in business administration. He has extensive experience in litigation and arbitration. He advises local and international clients in complex commercial disputes, particularly in post-M&A disputes, capital markets disputes, cartel damages disputes, manager liability disputes and disputes in the energy sector. He acts for parties and also sits as an arbitrator in both domestic and international arbitration under the auspices of institution...
Legal studies at the University of Bayreuth, First State ExaminationInternship at the Country Court Heidelberg, Second State Examination Five years’ experience as a lawyer with Linklaters in Munich and Frankfurt in the Litigation & Arbitration department, Managing Associate Seven years’ experience as a senior litigation legal counsel for Siemens Aktiengesellschaft in the Litigation, Arbitration & Alternative Dispute Resolution department, Munich Two years’ experience...
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