DEFECTIVE PRODUCTS (PRODUCTS LIABILITY)

If you have been injured or had property damaged by a product you purchased, Garcia | Marsalli, LLP is prepared to represent you.

There are many different types of product liability cases, but they all involve a consumer or commercial product that has injured persons or property. As the law has evolved over time, courts and legislatures have concluded that manufacturers and sellers owe a special responsibility to people who are injured by a product that they marketed for sale expecting to earn a profit. From a societal perspective, the burden of such injuries should be imposed on the manufacturer because they are in a better position than an injured consumer to bear the loss.

There are a several types of products liability cases including, but not limited to: manufacturing defects (assembly errors, failed materials or poor workmanship); design defects (an inherent design flaw that results in a product not performing as an ordinary consumer would expect, causing injury); failure to provide an adequate warning (an injury happened due to the absence of a reasonable warning that could have eliminated or reduced a product’s foreseeable risk); and misrepresentation (for example, a children’s product labelled “non-toxic” that contains lead or mercury).

In these types of actions, a Plaintiffs’ attorney will likely argue that the defendants breached both implied and express warranties, were negligent, and are “strictly liable” for his or her client’s injuries. Strict liability is a powerful “cause of action” or legal theory that applies in situations with manufactured products sold to the public. This theory of liability allows an injured party to recover without being required to prove negligence: demonstrating the existence of the defect and that it caused the injury is sufficient. For a number of sound public policy reasons, courts have determined it is not fair to require individual consumers to prove a negligence case against a manufacturer when they have been injured. Of course, a manufacturer will still have many potential defenses and counterarguments to a strict liability claim (e.g. misuse of the product, failure to properly maintain the product, the product was altered after the sale, etc.).

The sale of even the simplest product today involves many players. With a products liability case, a variety of parties in the “chain of distribution” can be potentially be found liable for a person’s injury. A defective toaster might have the following parties involved before it found its way to someone’s kitchen counter where a manufacturing flaw causes a fire: a component part manufacturer that built and supplied the heating elements, a product manufacturer and/or assembler, a wholesaler, and the ultimate retail or online store where it was purchased. With a product liability action, these parties can all be found “strictly liable.”

If you have been injured or had property damaged by a product you purchased, we invite you to contact our office. We will be glad to discuss your potential case, and initial consultations are always free.