Defective Products

Every year millions of people suffer personal injury or even wrongful death due to defective products. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is the government agency that provides oversight for all types of goods sold in the United States. "The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is charged with protecting the public from unreasonable risks of serious injury or death from thousands of types of consumer products under the agency's jurisdiction." When you purchase a product, you expect it to be safe and in good working order. Most manufacturers go to great pains to ensure the safety and efficacy of their products. Sometimes however, unsafe products make it to store shelves and into your home. Other products, by their nature, are hazardous when used improperly. The manufacturer of defective or unsafe products may be held liable in claims of personal injury or wrongful death. Under product liability law, all parties in the supply chain can be held accountable for defective products. While it may be impossible to collect damages from a foreign toy maker, the importers, wholesalers, and retailers who eventually present you with the product may be liable if they fail to take action to recall dangerous products or to warn you of the dangers. Products that are known to be dangerous and cause harm because the manufacturer, wholesaler, or retailer fails to warn you of the dangers may be held liable for damages under negligence. This is a legal term that means that a person or entity is culpable because they failed to take reasonable steps to protect you from harm. In order to collect on a product liability claim due to negligence you must first be able to prove that the defendant was negligent in their actions. Secondly, you must prove that the personal injury or wrongful death was a result of the defendant's negligence. Typical claims follow a pattern that there was a duty owed, that duty was breached, the result of the breach caused damages. Manufacturers or suppliers of defective products may also be held liable for defective products under strict liability. The law assigns strict liability to situations or products that are considered inherently dangerous. Strict liability discourages reckless behavior by making the manufacturer take extraordinary precautions when distributing its product. In some cases, if you knew of the danger of the product, but continued to use it, your claim product liability claim may not be successful. Central to product liability cases, the product must be proven to be defective. If it is marketing improperly such as with inadequate on incorrect instructions, it could be considered to have a marketing defect. If the product is designed correctly, but put together wrong, that is considered a manufacturing defect. A design defect means that the product was drawn up with the dangerous feature built in. Proving one of these layers of defect is essential to collecting damages.