Product Liability

Product liability refers to the responsibility held by the manufacturer, designer, distributor, and/or retailer of any consumer product to ensure that it does not cause harm. This means that the manufacturer of a product must ensure that proper warnings are included on labels and that defects do not occur during manufacturing.

Because of these rigid guidelines, when a consumer purchases a product, the last thing they tend to worry about is an injury resulting from a defect in the product. However serious injuries and accidents occur every day due to defects in products like automobiles, children’s toys, machinery and medications.

Causes of Product Defects

There are essentially three causes of product defects; negligence, breach of warranty and strict liability. If a defective product does cause an injury, a consumer may choose to sue on any one of the following:

Negligence – occurs if improper assembly or defective parts result in injury. A manufacturer can be held liable for negligence if there was lack of reasonable care in the production, design, or assembly of the product.
Breach of warranty – occurs if the seller of a product fails to uphold a claim, promise, or representation made concerning the quality or type of product.
Strict liability – occurs if the victim can show that the product is defective and that the defect caused the injury. Injured victims or others with no direct relationship to the product may sue for damages caused by the product.

Types of Defective Products

All manufacturers, retailers and storeowners have a responsibility to provide safe products to consumers. If defective product injures a consumer, the manufacturer and on occasion the designer, distributor, wholesaler, or retailer, may be held liable, as long as the consumer was using the product as it was meant to be used when they were injured. Any product that causes injury to a person due to faulty labeling, a design defect, or manufacturing flaw is considered defective. All types of products have the potential to be defective - including children’s toys, breast implants, pharmaceutical drugs, and automobiles. Some examples of product defects include:

Vehicle Recalls – Vehicle manufacturers are required by law to notify owners of vehicle recalls. Many manufacturers, however, are lax about low consumer repair response to these recall notices.
Defective Tires – Having properly designed and manufactured tires are vital to a motor vehicles performance and safety on the roadways. A poorly designed or defective tire can cause deadly automobile accidents, including vehicle rollovers and roof crush.
Seat Belt Defects – Wearing seat a belt can saves lives. However when defective seat belts fail to restrain a driver or passenger during a motor vehicle collision, the risk of serious injury or death increases significantly. Seat belt manufacturers are responsible for manufacturing safe and effective seatbelts, and when they don't may be liable for resultant injuries.
Defective Airbags – Airbags inflate at an average speed of 180 miles per hour; given the incredible force required to inflate this quickly, injuries from airbags are frequent. Sometimes there are serious defects in the airbag system. Insufficient amounts of heating agents to catalyze the inflation, flaws with the inflator connector, and leaks from the inflation module are all examples of product defects which have caused serious injury to passengers and drivers.
Crashworthiness – Vehicle manufacturers are responsible for ensuring that their automobile protects drivers and passengers in the event of a collision. Crashworthiness deals with the safety of auto components such as roof crush, seatbelts, airbags, and side-impact bars
Road & Highway Defects – Curves that are not properly planned, bridge construction that is not properly supported, missing traffic dividers, and improper or missing signage are a few examples of defective road design that can lead to an auto accident.
Construction Defects – Insufficient safety precautions can result in building design lawsuits. These types of claims can involve poor earthquake standards, emergency exits, handicap accessibility, and dangerous materials like asbestos.
Defective Child Restraint Seats – It is a harsh reality that many of the child seats meant to protect our children from harm are defective. Although dynamic testing by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) and meeting Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 213 are required of child seats, many do not meet these safety standards. Defective child seats have inadequate lateral support, weak shell material, confusing instructions, and a lack of torso restraint responsible for killing hundreds of children each year. Manufacturers that fail to produce safe child seats are responsible for the products that put children's lives in jeopardy.
Child Product Defects – Defective children’s products such as cribs, toys, bicycles result in numerous childhood injuries and fatalities every year.
Electric Blanket Defects – Electric blankets are common in many households. Millions of people who use them to keep warm, however, do not realize the serious risk of fire or thermal burns posed by defective or improperly used electric blankets.
Defective Household Products – Faulty or inappropriately labeled household products such as cleaning fluids result in thousands of consumer injuries and deaths each year.
Medical Products & Device Defect – These products are regulated under the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In spite of the regulations and tests put into place by the Food and Drug Administration, there are times when drugs or devices that are labeled "safe" are, in reality, very dangerous. Several times certain medical products have raised eyebrows because of consumer complaints about injury.
Defective Clothing – Clothing that catches fire easily poses a serious danger to consumers. Fabrics in which a fire is difficult to put out can lead to serious and permanent injury or even death. Under the Flammable Fabrics Act, clothing sold for public use must meet certain flammability standards. In many cases, the federal government has recalled some articles of clothing because they do not meet the law's guidelines and because they pose a serious health risk to consumers. Manufacturers of defective clothing may be legally liable under the law.
Firearms – If someone discharges a firearm and causes harm or injury - either negligently or consciously - to another person, he or she may be legally liable. Firearms comprise an important and complex area of law. For instance, when a child injures someone else with a firearm, his or her parents may be held accountable. If someone is charged with a serious weapon offense, he or she can expect to face significant fines or lose certain rights.
Food & Agriculture Products – There are many new chemicals and additives being pumped into our favorite foods nowadays which make it difficult to tell which ones are safe and which ones are not. Farmers and others are obligated to label their products with the appropriate warnings, but problems can still arise. For example, peanuts may be used in the making of a specific product but not included in the ingredients listed on the label. An unknowing consumer who suffers from a food allergy may have a severe allergic reaction if not warned.
Machinery Tools – Even properly maintained tools and equipment can fail which can result in serious injuring to the user. Large workplace equipment, such as forklifts and cranes, can also cause harm. Both the employer and the equipment's manufacturers have a responsibility to ensure that their tools and machinery are neither defective nor inherently dangerous.
Recreation Product Liability – The sad reality is that sometimes amusement parks and outdoor activities that bring us happiness and joy can also bring the most sadness into our lives. These days, it's all too common that we hear about a roller coaster that has seriously injured its passengers or an amusement park ride that has gone off its course. In some cases, the ride's equipment might be faulty and dangerous. Or, the operator may simply not be paying attention. Even with the proper safeguards, accidents can still take place.

Common Injuries Sustained from Defective Products

Unfortunately, many product defects cause injury to unsuspecting consumers. Some common injuries caused by defective products include:

Traumatic Brain Injury
Spinal Cord Injury
Paralysis
Broken Bones
Back Injury
Hearing Loss
Vision Loss
Burn Injury
Heart Attack

Stroke
Blood Clot
Stevens Johnson Syndrome
Kidney Failure
Rhabdomyolysis
Paraplegia
Quadriplegia
Mesothelioma
Wrongful Death

Elements of a Product Liability Case

From children’s toys to prescription drugs, consumers make purchases every day with an almost unconscious trust in the safety of the products they buy. The law considers any product which is unreasonably dangerous for its intended use to be defective. In considering this definition, it is important to understand that the term “unreasonably” dangerous is vital to the meaning of the term “defective”. Thus, a product may inherently be a danger but have such utility that the danger is one which would not be considered “unreasonable”. For example, gasoline is an inherently dangerous product, but its utility far outweighs any danger. Therefore, the law does not consider gasoline unreasonably dangerous for its intended use.

The designers, makers, and distributors of a product have a responsibility to protect consumers, but sometimes fail to meet this duty. The result of their failure is the creation, production, and sale of a dangerous or defective item. When an injury occurs to the consumer under reasonable circumstances (if the consumer was injured while using the product in the way it was intended), then the retailer, designer, and manufacturer can all be considered legally liable.

Product liability cases can be extremely complicated because there are often multiple parties potentially involved in bearing responsibility for the defective product. There are four primary elements that can play roles in a product liability case: marketing, testing, manufacturing, and design.

Marketing and Testing

If a product is improperly marketed to the consumer, and injury occurs as a result, then those responsible for product marketing can be held accountable. A common example is prescription drug cases in which warning labels are poorly or insufficiently written. Product testing is also a key component of liability cases. The idea behind testing a product before selling it is to protect the consumer. However, sometimes products are allowed to pass inspection without being adequately tested.

Manufacturing and Design

The final two elements of product liability cases are manufacturing and design. These tend to be the most important aspects of defective product claims. Sometimes a product with a perfectly good design is not built correctly. A car’s braking system that is well designed but becomes flawed when wires are crossed during the manufacturing process is a good example of this. Likewise, there are products whose flaws exist from their very creation: these flaws are known as design defects. And when they go unnoticed – or worse, are noticed and not corrected – serious problems result for the consumer.

Filing a Product Liability Lawsuit

Whether the product is a hairdryer or an automobile tire, manufacturers must make sure that products are designed and made safely, that quality control systems prevent defective products from entering the market, and that adequate directions and warning labels are available to protect consumers. If you or a loved one has been injured by a dangerous or defective product, you may be able to file a product liability lawsuit.

Product Liability Attorney

If you are considering filing a lawsuit, it is important to seek an experienced product liability attorney that is familiar with your states laws.