Personal Injury Law

Defective Products, Products Liability and Damages for Injuries

By Brian F. LaBovick, Esq.

In Personal Injury, one of the common areas for concern is that of defective products and products liability. In most instances, a product that poses harm or danger for its intended use is classified a a defective product.

Liability for defective products can include, those who have actually caused the defect to be held liable for their actions.  Persons who can bring the claim or file a product liability lawsuit, include the purchasers of the product and also those that were given the product.

Common types of Product Defects include:

"Marketing Defects," such as missing or inadequate warnings and/or instructions, which may prevent the consumer from knowing how to safely use the product. A good current example of this is the Birth Control Pill YAZ or Yasmin.

• "Design Defects," where the product is manufactured exactly as intended, but the product itself is deemed unreasonably dangerous when used as intended or in a foreseeable manner. A good example of this is the Ford Pinto from the 70's. 

• "Manufacturing Defects," when a particular version of a product is defective and does not conform to the manufacturer's design due to some error in the manufacturing process.

Negligence is an area that looks at several scenarios including the following: 
• Exercise of reasonable care in making sure the product would not cause injury if used properly. ;
• Design, Marketing, and/or Manufacturing that attributed to the defect of the product; and
• Direct and proximate cause of the defect/breach of duty,that injured the claimant.

A Strict Liability claim involves asking the claimant Is show that the product was unreasonably dangerous for its intended use. Also, it is usually required to show that  the defect existed at the time the product left the control of the defendant against whom liability is sought, which caused the  injury.

Damages are seen as an effective measure to force a manufacturers to make safe products in the beginning. In most instances, an injured party is entitled to recover damages for the lass suffered due to the injury caused by the defective product. Sometimes, a victim may be able to receive punitive damages to discourage the guilty party from doing something like this in the future.  

Click on the following links to learn more on defective products, defective drugs  and products liability.

Full post as published by LaBovick Injury Law Blog on August 26, 2009 (boomark / email).