Q: I had a lithium ion battery catch on fire in my house. Fire department identified it as the source of the fire.
Fire happened in the middle of the night on my night stand. Fire department came out and identified the battery pack as the heat source. I started to file a claim with my home owners insurance. It looks like the claim will be around 20k for clean up, replacing burt items, hospital costs (2nd degree burns to my hand and I work with my hands), and hotel costs. Not included in there is time me and my girlfriend have taken off work, time dealing with all of this, ect.
The only thing I have accepted from the home owners insurance is cleaning of my room because I'd like to be able to live in my house again sometime soon.
I'd like to know if I should continue to pursue this with my insurance company or if I should persue this legally?
A:
Consult with a personal injury/product liability attorney if you want to explore the basis for a claim based on a defective product theory. If based on your injuries, you do pursue that route, do not sign any further property damage-related releases before having your attorney review them, as they could possibly contain blanket provisions that include any cause(s) of action(s) based on a product theory. Good luck
Tim Akpinar
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