If you have suffered injuries or damages due to a product you used, you may have a defective products liability claim. Defective product claims fall under 3 major categories:
- Defective manufacturing
- Defective design
- Failure to provide sufficient warnings and instructions by the manufacturer related to the proper use of the product
To determine if you have a valid product liability claim, it is important to understand these categories. Once you understand the type of claim you have, you and your attorney will be able to use the appropriate strategies to present your case at trial. Let’s have a look at each of these categories which determine whether or not you have a valid product liability claim.
Defective Manufacturing
The most obvious type of product liability claim is when an injury is caused due to a manufacturing defect. Defectively manufactured products may be produced due to some error. The defective product may have a flaw because of a defective part or the way the product was put together.
Some common examples of defective products include a cracked chain or addition of a poisonous substance in the batch of medicines etc. However, in order to have a valid product liability claim, you must be able to prove that the product was used as intended and, because of the defect, use of that product resulted in the injury.
Design Defects
The second most common type of product liability claims are those where there was a design defect in the product. This is slightly different from defective manufacturing as the improper design will lead to the defective manufacturing of all items produced in the batch, instead if one or two defective products. Even if the product was perfectly made according to the manufacturer’s specifications, it will still cause injury because the design was faulty. Examples of defective designed products may include an electric blanket which can electrocute when turned on high.
In these cases also, the attorney or the victim must be able to prove that the actual use of that defectively designed product was the actual cause of the accident or injury.
Failure to provide sufficient warnings and instructions
Lastly, if the manufacturer fails to provide adequate warnings and instructions to the users regarding the proper use of the product, which results in injury, then the person may have a failure-to-warn claim which is a type of products liability claim. However, these types of claims are only valid when the product requires the user to show special caution while using it which the manufacturer failed to mention.
Some examples of these kind of claims include a cough syrup which fails to mention obvious side effects, or an iron or kettle which must be used in a specific manner to avoid hot steam or water from escaping and injuring the user.
Whatever your case, if you sustained an unexpected injury while using a product, you may have a product liability claim. Consult a personal injury attorney who can handle product liability claims.
