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Products-Liability-Plaintiffs

Products Liability Law

Products liability law is way of seeking relief when the cause of injury is something instead of someone. Products liability law applies a different set of rules compared to other personal injury matters for policy reasons. While a driver who causes a car accident may be liable to one or two people, the manufacturer of a car with defective brakes could potentially be liable to thousands. If you have been injured as a result of a defective product, a products liability attorney may be able to help you get relief.

What does Products Liability Law Cover?

The subject of products liability seems simple: products. However, there is sometimes an issue as to what makes something a product. A product typically means any tangible good, including appliances, food, automobiles, and medication. While the manufacturer of a product is typically the key defendant in a products liability case, in some cases the retailer or seller of a defective product may also be held liable. Product liability law does not just product the consumer or purchaser of goods. Defendants may be liable for a defective product to someone who they could have reasonably foreseen using the products-i.e. a borrower or a renter.

Defective Products and Forms of Relief

There are different kinds of claims that can be made under a theory of products liability. These rules vary from state to state. Since products liability is an offshoot of tort/personal injury law, most states require the injured party to assert a traditional claim such as misrepresentation, negligence or breach of warranty. In order to recover from a defendant for a defective product, the product must have been defective when it left the defendant's hands.

Types of Defects

There are three major types of product defects, though there are varying standards for defectiveness depending on the product as well as the jurisdiction. These three general categories are:

Manufacturing/production defects: products that were manufacturer improperly or not up to standard, despite being designed with all due care.

Design defects: products that were designed in such a way that they contain/present a foreseeable risk of harm, which could have been eliminated or minimized by using a different design.

Defective warnings/instructions: products that are defective because a foreseeable risk of harm is created through a lack of adequate warnings or instructions.

Generally, most states will not consider a product to be defective if the manufacture cannot reasonably foresee the risk nor avoid the risk when selling the product. For example, it is impractical for a knife manufacture to sell knives that are not sharp. The law does not offer relief under product liability law when a product carries obvious and inherent dangers. A knife manufacturer would also be under no duty to warn consumers that knives are sharp.

Virtually every product has the potential to be dangerous if used in a particular way. However, the law of products liability typically applies only when there was an excessive risk to consumers (a risk that a consumer should not have to bear) and the risk was reasonably foreseeable to the manufacturer and/or retailer. Nevertheless, products liability law was designed to protect consumers and provide relief for those who have been injured by a defective product. The specific rules regarding products liability do vary. If you have been injured by a defective product, talk to a products liability attorney to learn more about your rights and options.