The California products liability lawyers of Bisnar | Chase welcome the introduction of the Foreign Manufacturers Legal Accountability Act of 2009 into the Senate. "This new legislation will make it easier to hold foreign manufacturers 'feet to the fire' in the U.S. civil justice system, making them more accountable and accessible to legal remedies and levelling the playing field with American manufacturers," lawyer and products liability expert Brian Chase said.

Many Americans use products imported from foreign countries such as drywall, toys, toothpaste and cough syrup just to name a few. Unfortunately, many of these can be of substandard quality and even potentially dangerous. Even more unfortunately, it has been difficult to hold these foreign manufacturers accountable for their poor quality products which have injured and even killed many Americans.

The Foreign Manufacturers Legal Accountability Act of 2009, recently introduced by Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Jeff Sessions (R-AL), and Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-IL), will make it easier to go after erring foreign manufacturers.

In particular, the new law requires manufacturers to install an "agent" in at least one state where the company does business where they will agree to submit to state and federal jurisdiction. This means that they can be more readily served with a lawsuit if one of their company's products is found to be dangerous or defective. Previously, many stipulations of the Hague Convention would have first had to be satisfied, including the translation of legal documents into the native language of the foreign manufacturer and the tracking down of the foreign business's address--obstacles which made the process extremely lengthy and complicated.

While the new law gained momentum from the effects of millions of pounds of tainted drywall from China that has been wreaking havoc on homeowners nationwide, the Foreign Manufacturers Legal

Accountability Act of 2009 is expected to have a wide-reaching impact in how American consumers and law firms can hold foreign manufacturers accountable for a host of other products.

"This has the potential of saving us thousands of dollars and about six months in going through the Hague Convention when we go after a hard-to-find company that's been importing an injurious or defective product to the U.S.," Chase said.

The legislation covers products regulated by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), such as children’s toys; the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), including prescription drugs and medical devices; and products regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), like pesticides.