This month, federal regulators recirculated the recall of about 1.5 million OCOOPA rechargeable hand warmers sold online since 2018. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) says the lithium-ion battery inside can overheat and ignite: roughly 1,480 overheating reports, including 15 fires and about 350 burn injuries. Days later, on October 22, the CPSC also recalled about 3,332 Costway convertible high chairs that can trap or drop a child. Recalls like these protect the next buyer. But if a defective product has already hurt you or someone in your family, a refund is not the end of the story — and the most important step is one many people get wrong: keep the product.

A Recall Is a Warning, Not a Settlement

A recall usually offers a refund, a repair, or a replacement. Accepting that remedy replaces the product; it does not pay medical bills or lost wages, or compensate for serious harm. An injury claim is separate.

A recall also does not, by itself, win a case — you still must prove the product was defective and that the defect caused your injury. But a recall, and the incident reports behind it, can be powerful evidence the manufacturer knew of the danger. And you do not need a recall to have a claim — many valid Florida product liability cases involve products that were never recalled at all.

Florida’s Three Kinds of Product Defects

Florida product liability law generally recognizes three kinds of defects. A manufacturing defect means your individual unit came off the line wrong — a battery assembled with a flaw, even if most units were fine. A design defect means the whole product line is unreasonably dangerous as designed. A failure-to-warn defect means the product carried inadequate warnings or instructions about a risk the maker knew about.

Florida also applies strict liability in product cases: the focus is on the condition of the product, not on proving the manufacturer was careless. And responsibility can extend beyond the manufacturer — importers, distributors, and retailers in the chain of distribution may also be liable. Fault still matters: under Florida’s modified comparative negligence rule, your recovery is reduced by your percentage of fault and barred entirely if you are found more than 50% at fault, so how the product was used and maintained can become part of the case.

Keep the Product — Do Not Throw It Away or Send It Back

The product itself is the single most important piece of evidence in these cases. Engineers and safety experts need to inspect the actual unit that failed to determine whether the defect was in the design, in that one unit, or in the warnings. Photographs rarely substitute.

Recall notices often instruct consumers to stop using the product, destroy it, or return it for a refund. If no one was hurt, following those instructions is fine. But if you were injured, preserve the product first. If the product is thrown away, destroyed, or returned and lost, your claim can be severely damaged — courts call this spoliation of evidence, and it can undermine or even end an otherwise valid case. Store the product safely and unaltered (for a battery product, in a fire-safe place away from living areas), and keep the packaging, instructions, receipt, and model and serial numbers.

What to Do After a Product Injures You

1. Get medical care first — and keep every record and bill; they connect the injury to the incident.
2. Stop using the product and preserve it as-is — do not repair it, alter it, or let an insurer or retailer take it before it is documented.
3. Photograph everything — the product, its labels and model number, the scene, and the injury, as soon as you can.
4. Save your proof of purchase — order confirmations, receipts, and account emails help establish which product and which seller are involved.
5. Report the incident to the CPSC at SaferProducts.gov — reports help establish that the company had notice of the danger.
6. Do not sign releases or give recorded statements to an insurer or company representative before you understand them.
7. Have the claim reviewed promptly — product cases require expert inspection and investigation, and the deadlines below do not wait.

Deadlines: Four Years to File — and a Hard 12-Year Outer Limit

Florida generally gives an injured person four years from the injury to file a product liability lawsuit. But products carry a second, harsher cutoff: Florida’s statute of repose (Fla. Stat. § 95.031) generally bars a product liability claim once 12 years have passed since the product was first delivered to a consumer — even if the injury happened recently and even if you filed within four years of being hurt. An older product can be legally out of reach no matter how clear the defect is. Because both clocks run at once, a product injury should be evaluated as early as possible.

If you or a loved one was seriously injured by a defective or recalled product in Miami-Dade or Broward County, Tacher Law offers free consultations for defective product and other personal injury matters. Call +1 (305) 644-2211 or visit our contact page to discuss your situation.

Tacher Law, 16445 Collins Avenue, Suite 1625, Sunny Isles Beach, FL 33160.