Defective Product Injury: Rights Under Consumer Protection Act
If a product or any of its parts are found defective, its manufacturer is held liable for any kind of injury or damage caused by the defect and a defective product injury case can be filed in such cases. This applies to all consumer products as well as products that are used as a place of work.
If you purchase a product that simply does not perform as advertised, the manufacturer will definitely have some return policies. But, if it caused an injury due to faulty parts, you can file a claim for personal injury. The victim, however, needs to prove that the product that caused injury was defective and that the defect made the product unreasonably dangerous.
Three Main Types of Product Defect Claims Include:
- Design Defects
The product is inherently unsafe and was sold with this defect. In these cases, the product design is dangerous no matter how carefully manufactured. The product fails to satisfy ordinary customer expectations of safety and the risk of using it outweighs the benefit.
- Manufacturing Defects
These defects occur in the course of a product’s manufacturing process and assembly. These generally are caused due to the use of poor quality products or shoddy workmanship.
- Defects in Warnings
Inadequate written warnings for potentially unsafe products or components could cause harm and qualifies as a personal injury case due to inadequate warnings about the limitations of the product. However well manufactured the product is, failure to warn the consumers regarding its inherent and obvious dangers could be enough to file a personal injury case if it caused any harm.
A defective product injury lawyer can assist you to recover your losses from a manufacturer or seller based on the following theories in law:
Strict Liabilities
Strict liability focuses on the product itself. In this case, the manufacturer is liable if a defective product caused an injury irrespective of whether he was negligent in making that product or not. As long as the injuries are caused by a defective product, the manufacturer is held liable provided the product was used the way it is intended to be used. The other side of this theory is the amount of time you have been using the product. If you have owned the product for a while and knew about the defect, and still continued to use it, you will not be able to claim damages caused by the defect.
Negligence
By law, every manufacturer is expected to exercise a standard of care while manufacturing products. There should be no defects in the product due to negligence in the manufacturing process. There are two aspects of negligence that are considered, firstly, the victim should be able to prove that without the negligence of the manufacturer, the product wouldn’t have caused the injury. And secondly, the manufacturer could have foreseen the risks at the time of manufacturing and avoided the injury.
Breach of Warranty
A seller makes a certain representation regarding the quality of a product. It’s a promise that the product is in good working condition and will do what it is supposed to do. If the product is found to be other than as described by the seller, the seller could be liable for breach of express warranty.
Getting Help for a Defective Product Case
Since product liability is a complex area of law, it’s always a good idea to have an attorney to evaluate your case and understand the type of injury that you have sustained. A defective product attorney could provide you with the right kind of consultation regarding filing a personal injury claim. You can discuss your situation in detail and understand which theory suits your situation.