Theories to Launch a Claim for Defective Product Injuries

When injured by a defective product one can make a claim against any party involved in the distribution chain whether it is the manufacturer, retailer or someone else. There are four theories used in defective product cases. Understanding these theories will assist one make a choice on how they want to follow up a product claim.

The first is the Breach of Express warranty. This is any warranty or guarantee that is stated or written(they may normally be labeled) on the product, in the instructions manual or on other marketing materials that may come with the product.  Most products come with this warranty or guarantee. One may have a defective product claim if the defect on your product breached that warranty.

For example one may want to buy a hedge trimmer. You see an advertisement of a hedge trimmer that is able to cut hedges much thicker than yours, when you go to the store you find it placed in the heavy duty trimmer’s section. Then when you are trimming your hedges the blade gets stuck on your thin hedges and the motor fires up the blade which fly off and cuts maybe some of your fingers off. The advertisement, store sign and the instructions on the product may all be considered an express warranty. Since there is a breach of this express warranty you can use them as evidence to launch your law suit.

The second is the breach of implied warranty. If the product didn’t come with an express warranty that product is normally covered by implied warranty. An implied warranty is the warranty that is automatically applied to your product by the law. This law is imposed on manufacturers and suppliers of your product. Implied warranty surrounds cases on whether the product is fit and suitable for usage that it was made for.

The third is the strict products liability. This works whereby a company is liable regardless of whatever care or precautions it took to prevent an accident. In this case you just need to prove that the product is defective and it’s that defect that caused your injury. So if it’s the defect of the product that caused your injury it will be hard for the defendants to prove that they were very careful when they made that product. This theory can also be added up with negligence if the manufacturers claim that they were not aware of the possible danger of their product.

The fourth is Fraud. This happens whereby the manufacturer is quite aware of a certain defect with his product but still goes on to sell and market the product using deliberate misleading statements having concealed the danger. For example if you took some drug and you later on got some complications, then your lawyer discovers through company records that the management knew of the consequences of that drug but chose to cover it up then you have a claim for fraud.