With an increase in recent years of mass tort litigations and runaway jury verdicts, the scope and complexity of product liability and mass torts litigation continues to expand. The result:  product manufacturers face ever-growing potential risk and exposure. While in the past, manufacturers may have viewed products liability litigation as an inherent risk of doing business, the current legal climate has resulted in products liability litigation being far from business as usual.

As this legal landscape continues to shift, due diligence investigations concerning products liability issues can be critically important for companies considering corporate acquisitions—especially acquirers who may not have experienced the time and expense that can be involved in U.S. litigation. Though they typically spend most of their time litigating, products liability lawyers can leverage their litigation experience to assist in evaluating potential products liability exposure when a target company is a product manufacturer.