Each year, thousands of Americans are injured by defective foreign products imported into the United States. These defective products have ranged in recent years from asbestos and lead tainted toys to Chinese drywall. Loopholes in the law give foreign manufacturers ways of delaying lawsuits against them in the United States – but that may be about to change if a bill pending in the U.S. Senate is passed into law. Currently, when a foreign manufacturer’s product injures someone in the U.S. because of a defect, and the victim files suit against that manufacturer, serving the foreign defendant can take months or even years. Foreign manufacturers often seek to avoid judicial consideration of their actions by asserting that United States courts lack personal jurisdiction over their companies. New legislation, however, seeks to make it easier for plaintiffs to establish service and get the lawsuit moving.
The Foreign Manufacturers Legal Accountability Act of 2009 sponsored in early August by Senators Sheldon Whitehouse, (D-RI), Jeff Sessions, (R-Ala), and Richard Durbin, (D-Ill) addresses this problem with a two-pronged solution for foreign manufacturers wanting to sell products in the United States: 1. Foreign manufacturers will be required to have an “agent” in at least one state, which is designated to accept service on the company’s behalf; and 2. Foreign companies consent to state or federal jurisdiction where their registered agent is located.
This bill will not determine liability of a manufacturer or make the legal burdens on foreign manufacturers any greater than those imposed on domestic manufacturers. It simply makes service of process work as though the manufacturer were an American company.
Despite bipartisan support, though, the bill has not passed yet. However, passage of this bill is important to end the loopholes which have allowed foreign manufacturers to delay and avoid legal responsibility for defective products sold in the U.S.