Product Liability
Product liability refers to the law that regulates the liability of manufacturers including the sellers which are mainly the wholesalers, distributors, and retailers, for damages resulting from the dangerous and or defective products. The product liability law is basically from Torts law. This law was primarily designed to help protect consumers from dangerous and unsafe products, and to hold the chain of manufacturing or production, distribution, wholesaling, and retailing from putting into the market products that they must have known, one way or the another, were defective and dangerous.
Most product liability suits arise from products that contain inherent defects that resulted to harm and or injury of a person. Products that are intangible are also subjects of a product liability case. The product liability law defines these products are such as gas, pets, real estate, charts and graphs.
If a product caused harm or injury, liability can take place at any point along the progression of making the product and distribution, which means that the manufacturer, distributor, and vendor can all be held accountable for the injury or harm that resulted from using the product. Even the misuse of a product that can be predictable is also subject for product liability. The liability of the different parties involved will vary depending upon the jurisdiction.
There is no federal products liability law, although many states have adopted the model uniform products liability act. Today, most states have enacted comprehensive product liability laws. Product liability cases can involve compensatory damages to compensate the injured party and punitive damages to punish and deter conduct of the liable party.
Product liability claims should have three types of product defects to incur liability.
- Design Defects – Products have flaws or oversight in the design, which makes it inherently dangerous, although the products might perform or serve its purpose.
- Manufacturing Defects – Products are defective due to the manufacturing process, and might pose risks due to defective parts or are improperly assembled.
- Marketing Defects – Product defects involve inappropriate warning labels or instructions, which fails to warn consumers of the product’s latent hazards.
Show moreThere are three types of products liability claims that can be based on:
- Strict Liability – Under strict liability standard, the injured party needs only to establish that a product is defective and caused harm irrelevant to the care applied throughout design, manufacture, distribution and retail.
- Negligence – In a negligent action, the injured party must establish that that there was responsibility for placing the product into the market, had a duty to provide product suitable for their purposes, would have perceived the defect if reasonable care was given in the design and production, and has failed to satisfy the obligations, causing injury to the person.
- Breach of Warranty – Basically, breach of warranty is a negligent failure by the liable party to caution the injured party of the latent dangers of the product. Breach warranty can be classified in three types: breach of the product’s actual written warranty, breach of an implied warranty is defective product that is not covered by express warranty although there is no written warranty, and breach of warranty of fitness of a product is a defect in the product that causes them unfit for the designed purpose.