Types of Defective Product Liability Claims

Unfortunately, sometimes a product that you use may cause you severe injury. This is referred to as a defective product and you can seek out a liability claim against its manufacturer. Currently, there are three main types of product liability claims, which include:

• Defective Design
• Defective Manufacture
• Inadequate Instructions / Warnings

If you’ve suffered an injury or other damages due to a defective product, it’s important that you understand these three case categories. With the help of your Sherman Oaks personal injury attorney, you can work to present your case with a valid claim in one of the three categories above. When proving your case, you’ll need to prove that the product was faulty and that the defect was the direct cause of your injury.

Defective Design

Not all products are designed with the safety of the user in mind. If you’ve been hurt from a product that has an overall defective or dangerous design, then your claim will come from the fact that the whole line of that product is treacherous. In this type of case, you’re not proving that the item was manufactured wrong. Rather, the product is manufactured perfectly following the manufacturer’s specs. It’s the overall design of the product that is the problem. Some examples include:

• Sunglasses that don’t protect against UV rays.
• A car that is vulnerable to overturning when turning.
• Heated blankets that electrocute the users.

Again, you must be able to prove that your injury was a direct result of a design defect in the product. You can’t just sue a car brand because a vehicle flipped while you were driving at an excessive rate of speed. You can sue if the vehicle was already flipping over while turning a corner at a feasible rate of speed.

Defective Manufacture

The most common kind of product liability case is the defective manufacture of a product. In this type of case, you’re stating that your injury was a result of a specific defect in that one product’s manufacture. The product that caused your injury must somehow vary from all the other products on that line that were produced. Some examples that fall into this category include:

• A scooter that is missing a brake pad.
• A tainted medication that contains a harmful substance.
• A cracked chain on a swing set.

Inadequate Instructions / Warning Labels

Your attorney for defective product settlements in Sherman Oaks will reveal that this kind of product liability case involves a product that is either dangerous in a way that is not conspicuous to the user or requires the user to use special precautions. To sum this type of case up, your injury must be a direct result of the product manufacturer not properly instructing you on how to use the product or warning you of its dangers. Some examples include:

• An electric teapot with an oddly positioned steam valve that doesn’t have a readily available warning about its placement.
• A medication that doesn’t state it has harmful interactions with other drugs.
• A corrosive material that has no directions for safe handling and use.

Product liability cases are very unique to the individual circumstances regarding the injury. If you’re unsure of what type of case you’re looking to take on, you should speak with your lawyer today. To help make things a bit clearer, we’re going to discuss one product and how its potential harms can fall into each category.

For simplicity, let’s use a pharmaceutical medication as our example. This falls into a defective design liability claim if you have a heart attack after you take the cough medicine. This is justified because the medication caused another medical condition and didn’t treat its intended condition.

Let’s say this cough medication is manufactured at a factory that also hands arsenic. The arsenic somehow gets mixed into the cough medication at the factory. You take this cough medication and suffer a significant medical injury. This would fall into the defective manufacture liability claim category. This is because this defective product is different from all the other cough medication products that were produced because it was accidentally mixed with arsenic during the manufacturing process. 

Lastly, let’s say that you regularly take aspirin. When you wake up with a cold, you decide that you’re going to use cough medication. Unfortunately, you suffer a severe medication interaction between the cough medication and aspirin because there was no warning on the cough medication about possible interactions. In this case, it was a failure of the product manufacturer to properly label the product to warn its users about possible dangerous drug interactions.

Proving Your Product Liability Claim

You should always enlist the help of an experienced lawyer for product liability suits to ensure a good outcome for your case. Your legal counsel will have extensive knowledge about product liability claims that can ensure your legal case is constructed in a solid manner.

During your initial consultation with your attorney, they will explain to you that there are specific product liability laws that govern your state. However, in most states, your case must have four key elements to be viable. These include:

• The product is faulty.
• You were injured from the product (ie. you suffered losses).
• You were using the product properly.
• The product fault caused your injury.

Your product lawyer should be able to go through this list with you to determine if your case meets all four different areas of criteria. In the event that your situation does, they will likely take on your case. Most legal professionals won’t require any sort of upfront payment. Rather, they will charge their fee by taking a percentage of your case winnings.