Puerto Rico - Legal Help

Residents of Puerto Rico who have suffered injury as the result of defective products, harmful drugs or bad investment advice may be able to file a lawsuit against the people, companies or organizations responsible for their injuries. While Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territory of the United States, it has its own judicial system, including a system of Commonwealth courts. The United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico (USDPR) is in San Juan and has all the rights and obligations of a U.S. District Court. The USDPR has original jurisdiction over matters involving questions of federal law. Some of the defective products sold in the United States are available in Puerto Rico, potentially putting residents of Puerto Rico at risk of harm. In such instances, those individuals may be able to obtain Puerto Rico legal help.


Some securities and investments that were sold in Puerto Rico—including some UBS Puerto Rico closed-end funds—were allegedly marketed as being safer and more reliable than they wound up being. While these funds were only sold in Puerto Rico, people who purchased them may since have moved to the United States. Even if they still live in Puerto Rico, investors may be able to file Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) claims against the companies that issued or sold the funds, or against brokers if those brokers recommended unsuitable investments or an over concentration in an investment. Meanwhile, other securities complaints can be filed, if it is found that either those responsible for issuing the security or the advisors who recommended the security acted unethically or violated the law.


Patients who have been harmed by the use of allegedly defective drugs in Puerto Rico may be eligible to file a lawsuit against the manufacturer and/or marketer of the medication in question. These include prescription and over-the-counter drugs that may cause adverse reactions in patients. Some of the medications may have been subject to a voluntary recall by the US Food and Drug Administration while others may still be available on the market but may have been linked in studies to adverse reactions, some of which may be life-threatening. Furthermore, some of these drugs may already be the subject of lawsuits in the U.S.


In addition to pharmaceutical products, medical devices may also be the subject of lawsuits, if the medical devices do not work in the way they were marketed. Examples of medical devices include hip or knee implants, transvaginal mesh or shoulder pain pumps. In some cases, defective medical devices have been linked to adverse reactions while in other cases the allegedly defective devices have been linked to high failure rates, meaning they did not last as long as expected.


Some defective products that are sold in the U.S. are also sold in Puerto Rico, potentially putting residents of Puerto Rico at risk of injury caused by these products. In some cases, the products have been recalled by the various U.S. government agencies responsible for overseeing them (such as the Consumer Product Safety Commission or the National Highway Traffic Safety Commission). Lawsuits may have already been filed in the U.S. against the makers of allegedly defective products. Consumers who have been harmed by the use of defective products may be able to file lawsuits against the makers and sellers of those products.