A defective product causes injury or damage to a person or a person's property because of some defect in the product, its labeling or the manner in which the product was used. The manufacturer and others involved in distribution, sales or marketing of defective products can be held liable where injuries or property damage occur.
Defective products include a wide range of products including motorized vehicles, drugs and medical devices, toys, household products and any other product that has been defectively designed, manufactured or labeled.
Under product liability law, companies or individuals who make products available to consumers are held responsible when those products cause harm. Essentially, product liability law means that consumers who are harmed by defective products can be compensated for that harm.
Defective Motorized Vehicles
Defective motorized vehicles can cause car accidents that result in devastating injuries and death. Such accidents are often the cause of faulty manufacturing of the automobile. Examples of defective motorized vehicles include airbag failure, door latch failure, vehicles prone to rolling over, roof crush, brake failure and seatbelt failure.
In instances where the faulty design or manufacture of a vehicle or its component parts results in a car accident, vehicle manufacturers and dealers could be held responsible for any harm caused by the accident.
Defective Products Causing Injury
Defective products can cause serious personal injury and even death. There are a number of ways that product liability—when a defective product is responsible for injury—can occur. First is that the product could have been defectively designed or engineered. This could mean that the product was rushed to market and not properly analyzed for potential problems. The end result is that the product did not work in the manner intended and, as a result, caused harm. Furthermore, the product could have been properly designed but experienced an error during manufacturing, causing a defect.
The second form of product liability occurs when the product itself is safe, but there are improper instructions for use of that product or inadequate warnings regarding risks associated with the product.
The third form of product liability causing injury occurs with products that are inherently unsafe but are still put in the hands of the consumer. In such cases, even with proper design, manufacture and labeling, the product could still cause injury because of its very nature. In such situations, consumers can file product liability lawsuits if they are harmed by the product.
Defective Products Causing Property Damage
Consumers can file lawsuits in situations where defective products cause harm to their property. Some examples of defective products causing property damage include appliances that malfunction causing fire, pipes being improperly manufactured causing flooding, rust or corrosion, and actual components of the house—such as drywall—being improperly manufactured causing damage to the home. Such situations can cause not only harm to the property, they can also cause harm to the people who live in the homes.
Product Recalls
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has the responsibility of protecting consumers from unreasonable risk of serious injury or death from consumer products. This includes alerting the public to products recalled due to unreasonable risks. Products that are found to have caused harm or that are likely to cause harm are recalled in the interest of consumer safety.
Defective Product Liability
There are four legal means for establishing liability in cases where a defective product has caused injury:
- Negligence occurs when expected, reasonable care is not taken and a legal responsibility exists to do so. The lack of care can be accidental or on purpose.
- Breach of warranty takes place when a seller fails to uphold a claim or promise about a product.
- False advertising that leads consumers to believe a product is safer than it really is, or distracts them from potential risks inherent in the use of a product, can be argued as misrepresentations under breach of warranty or under strict liability.
- Strict liability makes the manufacturer or seller of a defective product responsible for all injuries occurring from the use of the product. The victim must show that the product was defective and that the defect was the cause of the personal injury. If so proven, then strict liability holds the manufacturer or seller responsible, regardless of fault or intent
Product Liability Lawyers
Product liability lawyers will evaluate cases involving defective consumer goods that cause physical injuries such as burns, fractures, head injuries and blindness. Lawsuits can be brought against manufacturers for design defects, improper safety devices and manufacturing defects, and marketing defects (failure to warn of possible hazards).
Defective product law involves defective and unreasonably dangerous products that cause personal injuries and even death. Manufacturers of products are liable for design defects, improper safety devices and manufacturing defects that cause injury. |
DEFECTIVE PRODUCTS ARTICLES AND INTERVIEWS
-
Harmony High Chairs Recalled by Graco
Washington, DC: About 1.2 million Graco Harmony™ High Chairs are being recalled by the manufacturer, Graco Children's Products, because the screws holding the front legs of the high chair can loosen and fall out and/or the plastic bracket on the rear legs can crack causing the high chair to become unstable and tip over unexpectedly. This poses a fall hazard to childre..
-
Accelerator Victim Giving Toyota a "Long Leash" For Now
San Francisco, CA: Carol bought her 2004 Matrix Toyota secondhand from the dealer with only 38,000 miles on it. With that little mileage on the car, however, Carol suspected that the previous owner knew of the Toyota accelerator problem, which has been ongoing since 2003..
-
You Gotta Have Hartz—But Then Again, Maybe Not
Newark, NJ: For years Hartz Mountain has been a trusted name in pet care, and generations of animal lovers have relied on Hartz flea and tick products and other supplies to maintain the health of their pets. But that all could be changing, as various lawsuits have been filed over the past several months accusing the manufacturer and various defendants of selling "an unreasonably dangerous product," according to one recent suit filed earlier this month in US District Court in Newark, New Jersey..
|
