A dangerous drug lawyer helps people harmed by a defective or unreasonably dangerous prescription or over-the-counter medication, and families who lost someone to one. At Rosenthal, Kooshoian & Lennon, LLP, our dangerous drug attorneys hold the drug companies accountable when a medication injures the people it was supposed to help. You trusted that the medicine was safe. When a manufacturer put profit ahead of that trust, our firm makes it answer.
We take medications on faith, trusting that they've been tested and that we've been told the risks. Too often, a drug reaches the market with a hidden danger, a serious side effect the maker knew about and downplayed, or a defect that turns a treatment into a threat. When that happens, the harm can be severe or fatal. Our Buffalo dangerous drug lawyers take on the pharmaceutical companies responsible. This connects to our broader Buffalo personal injury practice, so the full weight of the firm is behind your case.
Call us 24/7 at 716-854-1300 to speak with a personal injury lawyer near you, or contact us for a FREE consultation.
A dangerous drug case is a claim against the maker of a medication that injured a patient because it was defective or unreasonably dangerous. It's a form of product liability, applied to pharmaceuticals. When a drug causes serious harm because of how it was designed, made, or labeled, the company that put it on the market can be held responsible for the injuries it caused.
These cases are different from a claim against a doctor or pharmacist. A dangerous drug case targets the product itself and the company behind it, not the provider who prescribed or dispensed it. Our dangerous drug attorneys focus on the manufacturer's failure, whether the drug was flawed, contaminated, or sold without adequate warning of a known risk.
Usually one of three kinds of defect. A design defect means the drug itself is unreasonably dangerous even when made correctly. A manufacturing defect means something went wrong in production, like contamination or a bad batch. A warning defect, the most common in drug cases, means the company failed to warn patients and doctors about a risk it knew or should have known about.
The three defect types our dangerous drug lawyers pursue are:
Failure to warn sits at the center of most dangerous drug cases, because companies too often bury or delay disclosing a serious risk. Our defective drug attorneys dig into what the maker knew, and when.
Not necessarily, and approval doesn't bar a claim. FDA approval means a drug cleared the agency's review process based on the information available at the time, but drugs are recalled and relabeled all the time after new dangers emerge in wider use. A company can still be responsible when it hid data, downplayed a risk, or failed to warn about a side effect it knew about.
Many of the most serious drug dangers only become clear after a medication has been on the market for years and taken by millions of people. The company often knows before the public does. Our dangerous drug lawyers pursue manufacturers that had warning signs and failed to act, regardless of the original approval, because approval is a floor, not a shield.
Usually after they're already in wide use. A pattern of unexpected side effects emerges, studies raise alarms, the FDA issues a warning or requires a stronger label, or the drug is recalled. Sometimes internal company documents later reveal the maker knew of the danger long before the public did. By then, many people may already have been harmed.
This delayed discovery is exactly why these cases matter. A drug can injure thousands of people before the danger is acknowledged, and the companies rarely come forward on their own. Our dangerous drug attorneys track recalls, warnings, and emerging litigation, and we investigate what a manufacturer knew and hid about a medication's risks.
Almost any category of medication can, when a serious risk is hidden or a defect slips through. Blood thinners, diabetes medications, pain relievers, birth control and hormone products, weight-loss drugs, antipsychotics, and many others have all been the subject of dangerous drug litigation at one time or another. The common thread is a serious harm the maker failed to prevent or disclose.
What matters isn't the type of drug but the nature of the failure, a dangerous design, a contaminated batch, or a buried warning that makes it a defective drug. If a medication caused you a serious, unexpected injury, it's worth having a lawyer look at whether the maker is responsible. Our dangerous drug lawyers evaluate the drug, the injury, and what's known about the medication's risks.
No, and the difference decides who you sue. A dangerous drug case blames the drug itself and its manufacturer. A pharmacy error, dispensing the wrong drug or dose, or a prescribing mistake by a doctor, is a different kind of claim against the pharmacist or physician. The medication in a true dangerous drug case was the right drug, correctly taken, and still caused harm.
These distinctions matter because they point to different responsible parties and different types of claims. A wrong-drug error at the pharmacy or a careless prescription is closer to malpractice or negligence. Our dangerous drug attorneys identify which kind of case you actually have, and if a prescribing or dispensing error was involved, our related medical malpractice practice covers that ground.
Primarily the manufacturer, and sometimes others in the chain. The company that designed, made, and marketed the drug is usually the central defendant, but responsibility can also reach a distributor, a testing company, or another party involved in bringing the drug to market. These are large, well-funded corporations, and taking them on takes real resources.
Pharmaceutical companies defend these cases aggressively, with teams of lawyers and deep pockets, which is why individual patients need experienced representation to stand a chance. Our dangerous drug lawyers know how these companies operate and how to hold them accountable, and we have the resources to pursue a corporate defendant the way these cases require.
It's how many dangerous drug cases are handled, because the same drug often harms large numbers of people. When thousands of patients are injured by one medication, their cases are frequently coordinated into a mass tort or a multidistrict litigation, which groups similar claims together for efficiency while keeping each person's case individual. Your claim stays yours, but it moves within a larger, coordinated litigation.
This structure gives injured people real strength in numbers against a giant pharmaceutical defendant, while still valuing each case on its own facts and injuries. Our dangerous drug attorneys help injured New Yorkers bring their claims within these coordinated litigations, so you get the leverage of the larger fight without losing the individual attention your case deserves.
Some of the most serious in all of injury law. Depending on the drug, harms can include internal bleeding, organ damage, heart attacks and strokes, cancers, birth defects when taken during pregnancy, severe psychiatric effects, and death. These are catastrophic, life-altering injuries, not minor side effects.
Because the injuries are so severe and often permanent, the stakes in these cases are high, and the future costs can be enormous. A drug-caused stroke, cancer, or organ failure carries a lifetime of consequences. Our dangerous drug lawyers document the full extent of the harm and its long-term impact, so the claim reflects everything the medication cost you.
A dangerous drug claim can recover your past and future medical expenses, lost income and reduced earning power, the cost of ongoing care, and compensation for pain, suffering, and the lasting effect on your life. Where a company knew of a danger and hid it, punitive damages may also be possible, and if the drug caused a death, the family can pursue a wrongful death claim.
The punitive damages point matters here more than in many cases, because these injuries often trace to a deliberate corporate choice to conceal a risk. When a company put profits ahead of patients' lives, the law allows damages meant to punish and deter that conduct. Our dangerous drug attorneys pursue every category of compensation the facts support.
The family may have a wrongful death claim. When a defective or dangerous medication kills someone, whether through a heart attack, a stroke, organ failure, or another catastrophic effect, the family can bring a claim through the estate against the manufacturer, along with a claim for what their loved one suffered.
Our wrongful death lawyer page explains how these claims work in New York, who can bring them, and what a family can recover. Losing a loved one to a medication that was supposed to help is a special kind of betrayal, and our dangerous drug lawyers handle these cases with the care a grieving family deserves.
Generally three years, but when the clock starts can depend on when you connected the injury to the drug. Because drug injuries often surface long after someone starts a medication, and the link to the drug may not be obvious at first, New York's rules can allow the deadline to run from when you discovered, or reasonably should have discovered, that a drug caused your harm. The timing can be complicated, so it's a mistake to wait.
These deadlines are especially tricky in drug cases, because a recall or a new warning may be the first sign that a medication caused an injury you suffered earlier. Coordinated litigations can also have their own timelines. Our dangerous drug attorneys sort out exactly when your deadline runs, so a valid claim isn't lost to a technicality.
Get medical care and preserve everything related to the drug. Keep the medication, its packaging, labels, and any receipts or pharmacy records, write down which drug you took and when, and hold onto your medical records connecting the drug to your injury. Don't stop a prescribed medication without talking to your doctor, and talk to a lawyer before dealing with the company.
The physical evidence, the pills, the bottle, the label, and the paper trail of your prescription and treatment can be important proof of what you took and what it did. Getting our dangerous drug lawyers involved early lets us preserve that evidence, connect your injury to the medication, and protect your claim while the deadlines are sorted out.
Our dangerous drug lawyers investigate the drug, the injury, and the company behind it. From the start, our attorneys establish which medication caused the harm, gather the medical proof linking the drug to your injury, and determine what the manufacturer knew about the risk and when it knew it.
Our defective drug lawyers work with medical and pharmaceutical experts to prove that the drug caused your injury and that the maker's defect or failure to warn was responsible, and we position your claim within any coordinated litigation to give it the strength of the larger fight. Our team documents the full lifetime impact of the injury and pursues every responsible party. Most cases resolve through negotiation, but our dangerous drug lawyers build every one to be ready for trial, and our firm stands with injured clients from start to finish.
Our dangerous drug lawyers represent injured people and grieving families across Western New York, and our firm handles these cases the same way it handles every case, with the client's interests first, through settlement, trial, and appeal. Our attorneys understand how pharmaceutical companies defend these claims and how to hold them accountable for the harm their products cause.
These cases reward a firm that isn't intimidated by a corporate defendant, understands the science and the litigation, and will fight for a seriously injured client. That's what our dangerous drug attorneys bring, along with straight answers in plain language, so you always know where your case stands. You focus on your health and your family. Our team will handle the investigation and the fight.
If you or someone you love was seriously harmed by a prescription or over-the-counter medication in Buffalo or Western New York, the attorneys at Rosenthal, Kooshoian & Lennon, LLP are ready to help. Contact us for a free consultation, and a Buffalo dangerous drug lawyer will review what happened, evaluate whether the drug's maker is responsible, and lay out your options, with no fee unless we recover for you.
Don't wait, because the deadlines in drug cases can be tricky and the evidence is best preserved early. The sooner our dangerous drug lawyers start, the more our team can do to link your injury to the medication, investigate the manufacturer, and protect the full recovery you and your family deserve. If your injury came from a chemical or environmental exposure rather than a medication, our toxic exposure lawyer page covers that overlap as well.
Call us 24/7 at 716-854-1300 to speak with a personal injury lawyer near you, or contact us for a FREE consultation.
Disclaimer: This page is for general information only and isn't legal advice. Reading it doesn't create an attorney client relationship. Product liability and dangerous drug law is complex and can change; the principles described reflect New York law as of 2026, and how they apply depends on your specific situation. Every case is different, and prior results don't guarantee a similar outcome. For advice about a specific injury, please consult a licensed New York attorney.
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