So I'm not a lawyer, but don't be quick to settle.
The limitation period for your child is 2 years after their 18th birthday. I think any settlement over $5000 must be approved be the courts. Also, teeth and the fixing of teeth can sometimes be age restrictive, remember their smile for the rest of their life.
Hang onto the hoverboard. The manufacturer will want to see it and most likely complete testing on it.
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Captain James P. DeCOSTE, CD, 18 Sep 1993
Corporal Jean-Marc H. BECHARD, 6 Aug 1993
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Well isn't that the mechanism to hold people/corporations accountable? Should I be out the over 10k it's going to cost for his dental services plus his ongoing dental care through his adult life. The accident was not his fault if you bothered to read any of the posts. Thanks for your very intelligent and thoughtful post
You are likely looking for a "product liability" lawyer. It's a subset of tort law that most personal injury lawyers don't deal with. It's typically only done by the larger PI firms. So I would just start calling the local ones.
There are also a bunch of existing class action suits related to hoverboards. I would look and see if there are any ongoing suits involving your specific model of hoverboard.
Sorry, late to this. I tend to avoid OT forum these days.
I personally don't touch product liability cases as the reward is generally not worth the PITA factor, but no doubt some injury lawyer in town would look at it. Presumably, the dental specialist can provide an estimate of future treatment costs, plus the child is entitled to some amount of money (not too much I would think) for "pain and suffering", in addition to whatever costs you have incurred to this point. You have effectively 9 years to sue (2 years from 18th birthday), so there is no real rush to do anything. You might check online to see if there is any lawsuits related to this issue in the US.
Fundamentally, you have to prove that the item did not function as it reasonably should have, and that this defect in fact caused the injury. That means, if needed, having an expert (engineer?) take the thing apart and determining what actually happened and why. Common sense is insufficient. You, as the claimant, have to actually establish what actually caused the chain of events, and then that this was "unreasonable" in the circumstances.
That's off the top of my head - I have been up since 3 today, so could be stupid. Call around...
Sorry, late to this. I tend to avoid OT forum these days.
I personally don't touch product liability cases as the reward is generally not worth the PITA factor, but no doubt some injury lawyer in town would look at it. Presumably, the dental specialist can provide an estimate of future treatment costs, plus the child is entitled to some amount of money (not too much I would think) for "pain and suffering", in addition to whatever costs you have incurred to this point. You have effectively 9 years to sue (2 years from 18th birthday), so there is no real rush to do anything. You might check online to see if there is any lawsuits related to this issue in the US.
Fundamentally, you have to prove that the item did not function as it reasonably should have, and that this defect in fact caused the injury. That means, if needed, having an expert (engineer?) take the thing apart and determining what actually happened and why. Common sense is insufficient. You, as the claimant, have to actually establish what actually caused the chain of events, and then that this was "unreasonable" in the circumstances.
That's off the top of my head - I have been up since 3 today, so could be stupid. Call around...
You have effectively 9 years to sue (2 years from 18th birthday), so there is no real rush to do anything.
I’m going to disagree on the “no real rush” part.
Who knows if the manufacturer of the product is going to be around in 9 years?
They might go out of business, get bought out (but via a deal structured so that future liabilities don’t attach to the buyer), who knows what might happen?
I’d consider filing suit in the near future and then holding the case open as damages become more ascertainable and definitive.
Most reasonable avenue is to keep an eye out for existing proceedings or actions against them in US or Canada in the coming years given you have time (also requires this be a legit company that is going to be around for a while or big enough to deal with a class action without just ghosting, which is quite low in this case, so that's probably the first non-starter). Sounds like you'll be at the dentist a lot anyways, so I'd at least get an estimate for future work now and then sit on it and monitor.
Those products are slapped together so cheaply and shoddily, that I'd be shocked if this was even a 'real' company that wouldn't just vaporize at the first sign of a legal issue. This sounds insanely hard to prove and then good luck a) litigating it, and b) enforcing any sort of judgement. Even a settlement is going to be tenfold more work and time than the settlement $$s would be worth if you have to start the action and complaint yourself.
Given them shutting off when overheating/battery issues is a known 'feature' (sure its a poor safety measure, but giant lithium fires are way worse I guess), chances are unless an expert engineer could ID the specific fault on this unit above and beyond that feature, as well as the company's specific fault for it, you'd be up #### creek anyways, especially since an expert engineer that does that sort of work isn't going to do it for free.
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I tend to avoid OT forum these days. 
