Here was I hoping that this thread would be a good one.
I’m left with a bad taste in my mouth and a need for closure….

I don’t think the OP has any legal comeback but he does have my sympathy, as a pair of cheap and nasty cable disk brakes on my bike at uni did exactly the same thing.

Steep descent, soft organic pads, and a bit of mud worked together to remove a bit of pad material. Because they require the pads winding in manually as they wear, within about 30 seconds I found the levers coming back to the bar.

Had Strava existed when I was at uni I’d hold the KOM for all time on that descent, but I also bailed at the bottom of the hill before the main road. After getting home and limping to the bike shop, I spent what remained on my student loan on a pair of Hope Mono Minis that afternoon.

However, I didn’t dream of sueing Shimano for crap design. Perhaps I should have.

Fitting as per instructions then almost immediate failure. At both ends.

I’d say it is a legal issue.

Is the op legally competent to look after his own affairs?

Why are all these people

bailing

instead of just putting your foot onto the rear wheel like you did as a kid?

Fitted as per instructions

I think that’s something that will be challenged, and that you’ll have to have some evidence of what exactly was done. It may only take a disclaimer on the fitting instructions along the lines of “this product should only be fitted by a competent professional” to basically destroy your case.

And as others have said, be prepared to provide full détails of what was done and what happened. If you have photos of the brakes after they “failed” they’ll be useful too I would expect.

Even if you speak to a lawyer, it’s probably worth practicing your decription of the incident somewhere like here rather than paying a lawyer large amounts of cash to listen to you while you refine your description.

The OP has bailed again.. Shot down by the stw Luftwaffe

Shot down by the stw Luftwaffe

More Herr Flick than Luftwaffe I think.