What to do When Something Goes Wrong: Best Practices for Responding to Product Defect Reports

IMAGINE... your company receives a report from a customer about a product failure that suggests the product or a component part may be defective and even may have caused an injury to a consumer.  What’s your next move?

Companies that manufacture, sell, and distribute consumer products (and component parts) and other products in heavily regulated industries, such as the automotive and food and drug industries, face complex regulatory requirements for reporting and responding to allegations of product failures or defects, often under short deadlines.

• When are you required to report events to agencies like the CPSC?
• What must you disclose?
• When is a recall required or recommended? 
• What are your other options? 
• Can you get insurance for the costs? 

Our panel of attorneys and insurance professionals will help you sift through the red tape to understand your obligations and options for successfully navigating these challenging situations.

You will learn valuable details about:

• Product Recall Insurance
• Common Coverages and Overlooked Exclusions
• Lessons learned – Real world examples of insurance claims

The educational panel discussion will be from 11:00 - 2:00. 

Lunch will be provided.

LeeAnn Jones
Litigation Attorney, Taylor English Duma

LeeAnn Jones represents product manufacturers, retailers, and other businesses in business litigation, vendor/supplier disputes, and complex personal injury liability defense litigation. She also advises clients in risk management, liability avoidance, regulatory compliance, and pre-litigation claim assessment and resolution. She is registered with the Georgia Office of Dispute Resolution and serves as a mediator and arbitrator in all types of business and personal injury disputes.

Brad Czerwonky
Intellectual Property Attorney, Taylor English Duma

Brad Czerwonky will moderate our panel.  Brad is an engineer, inventor, and patent attorney who now helps innovators protect their own ideas. Before becoming an attorney, Brad helped design airframe repairs at one of the world’s largest airlines and then for years designed, tested, and introduced new refrigerated appliances in both the U.S. and overseas, including getting his hands dirty on the production line. He now represents both start-ups and manufacturers, including manufacturers of commercial appliances, articulating studio furniture, fasteners, and consumer products, helping them protect their ideas and identities/brands and more. 

We wanted to provide some unique insights on Brad.  He lived on a sailboat in middle school.  He built a violin in high school and ran cross country in college. He also speaks Japanese.  The thing that we found most interesting about Brad is that he read the encyclopedia for fun in elementary school.  With this background, we believe Brad will make a fantastic moderator for our panel.

Daniel Preston 
Vice President, Brown & Brown Insurance Company

Daniel is a Vice President with Brown & Brown Insurance. He began his career at Brown & Brown as an Internal Auditor, focusing on best practice procedures and errors and omissions prevention. Today, Daniel helps place, manage, and service risk management and insurance-related products for his clients. He holds multiple professional designations, including Certified Insurance Counselor. Daniel’s current clients include manufacturing businesses, real estate firms, and technology companies.

Grant Belden

Global Commercial & Supply Chain Leader - Process Efficiency Partner, LLC.

Grant has extensive global experience along with a wealth of knowledge in commercial management, supply chain optimization, and new business development. Grant's background spans multiple industries, including cocoa, confectionary, peanuts, pecans, and soybeans, across diverse geographies such as the USA, Europe, Asia, South America, and West Africa. 

Grant will cover the following topics:

• Tips and options for tracking customer complaints/reports of defects
• Business decision analysis for responding to defect reports
• Logistical considerations for managing voluntary product recalls/recoveries

GMA is pleased to provide this unique educational and networking event specifically designed to help build strategic alliances between suppliers, service providers, and manufacturers in Georgia.

 Thank you to our event sponsor Taylor English Duma

 If you have any questions, please email support@georgiamanufacturing.com.