November 23, 2022 Update: The 1st Circuit Court of Appeal in Boston has revived the class action litigation accusing Evenflo Company Inc. of misleading consumers about the safety of side impacts and testing of its “Big Kid” vehicle booster seats. The Appeals Court ruled that a lower-court judge was wrong in concluding earlier that consumers in the multidistrict litigation lacked standing to sue for damages.

Lieff Cabraser partner Jonathan Selbin, who represents the plaintiffs, noted they were gratified that the court, which ruled only two weeks after hearing arguments, “acted swiftly to revive our claims.” He also noted, “Too many courts have been using Article III standing as a way to keep consumers who were ripped off from having their day in Court. We are happy that our clients will now get theirs.”

Earlier in the Case

Lieff Cabraser represents parents and their children in a putative class action lawsuit against Evenflo Company over improper and fraudulent marketing of child car seats.

According to multiple reports, Evenflo has known–since at least 2012–that its Big Kid Booster Seat is not suitable for children under forty pounds and four years of age nor does it appreciably reduce the risk of serious injury or death from side-impacts or collisions. Nevertheless, Evenflo aggressively markets the Big Kid Booster as “the best way to minimize injuries to your child” and claims that it will “greatly reduce the risk of serious injury to your child in a crash.” As alleged in the complaint, Evenflo knew, even while it was making representations to consumers about the professed safety of its Big Kid Booster, that the seats were not safe, should not be used by children under forty pounds, and provided little to no side-impact protection.

As further alleged in the complaint, Evenflo misled consumers into believing that the Big Kid Booster were “SIDE IMPACT TESTED” and provided side-impact protection without revealing that those representations were virtually meaningless; Evenflo designed its own side-impact tests and yet failed even those lax and forgiving standards. Recently released video shows that those tests unmistakably demonstrated that a child seated in its booster could be in grave danger in such a crash. In addition, and among other misrepresentations, Evenflo also aggressively marketed the Big Kid Boosters in the US as safe for children who weigh as little as 30 pounds even while, in Canada, Evenflo told consumers that a child that weighed less than 40 pounds risked “SERIOUS INJURY or DEATH” using the same Big Kid Booster.