Defective Products
Protecting Consumers Against Defective Products Under The Law
Personal Injury laws usually include “Product Liability” law as a part of it. Under this law, the onus of delivering a good quality and safe product to the consumer lies on the manufacturer, wholesaler, distributor and retailer. There are various Springfield Personal Injury law firms that offer specialized services in the area of Product Liability.
The principle behind Product Liability law is to ensure that the consumer’s rights remain protected, and the manufacturers and other middlemen in the value chain cannot take advantage of the consumer’s trust. The businesses need to conduct their operations responsibly and safety of the consumers is of paramount importance for a business. Springfield Personal Injury lawyers can handle your case successfully in case you have suffered injury on account of a faulty product.
Usually, product liability is concerned with consumer items, whether durable or non-durable ones. It could be a faulty food product that can cause a health hazard, or an expired medicine, or basic defect in an electrical item or an automobile, resulting in an accident later on. Product liability could even include a leakage in the roof if you have purchased a house, or it could also include industrial products or machinery that may result in an accident involving a worker in the factory.
Product Liability could arise in various cases such as:
Defective product design: If there is a basic flaw with the product design that results in injury to the user, it makes a case of product liability against the designer or manufacturer of the product.
Manufacturing Defect: If during the manufacturing process, adequate quality controls and checks have not been established, resulting in a defective product that causes an injury to the user later on, the liability of the personal injury lies on the manufacturer.
Marketing fault: In case the product is not carrying the necessary product information, warnings or usage instructions, and as a result the consumer suffers a hazard or injury from a mistaken use, the product liability falls on the company that produced the product and marketed it defectively.
Negligence: Another element of product liability is that negligence on part of the manufacturer or the marketer of the product must be proved. The manufacturer has a reasonable duty to ensure the product is safe, and foresee any possible dangers arising from its usage within the reasonable limits. So if a product defect happens, it must be proved that the manufacturer violated his basic duty within the reasonable limits of quality and care expected from him.
Strict Liability: In certain cases, the principle of strict liability applies to a product or service. Under this standard, once the user has proved that the product is defective, the product liability on part of the manufacturer or producer arises immediately upon this fact itself. It is immaterial in a case of Strict Liability regarding how much caution, quality control, checks and procedures were applied at the design stage, production stage, marketing and distribution stage, and at the point of sale.
