Different Types Of Product Liability

When you buy a product from the store you not only expect it to meet your needs and do the job for which it was intended, you expect it to be safe. The vast majority of manufacturers take the safety of their products very seriously. However, there are many stages in the delivery of goods to consumers where things can go wrong. There are thousands of instances of personal injury and even death from defective or unsafe products. If you are injured after using a product of any type, you can seek monetary damages from those who are found liable for the product.

Product Liability

The broad definition of product liability is the area of the law that holds accountable the manufacturer, distributor, suppliers, and even the retailer of a defective product if it causes an injury. In instances where the product is manufactured oversees, it may be difficult to collect damages. In those cases, the liability may fall to other parts of the supply chain, the wholesalers and retailers. The first step in proving a product liability claim is to prove that the product is defective.

There are different levels of defects:

* Design defect – The product is bad because it is poorly designed or planned.
* Manufacturing defect – The defect is introduced during the production stage.
* Marketing defect – The product does not have proper warnings associated with it when the item itself may be dangerous or contain dangerous parts.

Strict liability

Manufacturers or suppliers of dangerous products may be held liable under what is known as strict liability. This level removes the burden of proving that the responsible party was negligent in any way. The manufacturer, designer, or supplier is liable even if they did were not negligent in making the product defective.

Negligence

To find someone negligent you must meet the following criteria:

* There was a duty owed (to provide a safe product)
* A breach of that duty exists
* That breach resulted in the injury in question

In some cases, if the manufacturer broke the law or failed to meet a regulation, they could be found guilty per se in the place of the duty and the breach of that duty.

Breach of warranty

There are two types of warranty:

* Expressed
* Implied

An expressed warranty is a direct statement about the products form or function. If the defect arose that is directly counter to that express statement, which results in an injury, the entity in the supply chain that made the claim may be liable.

Implied warranties are those uses of the product that are common to all similar products and are understood, not expressed verbally or in writing. In either case, a breach of the warranty causing injury is actionable.
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Erich Shrefler

To find out more details about different types of product liability, and whether or not someone can be held liable for your personal injury, please visit New York’s product liability attorneys at Silberstein, Awad & Miklos, P.C. today to schedule a confidential, no-cost consultation.




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