Companies can sometimes put out defective products without their being aware of any oversight or mistake in their manufacturing process. That’s why these companies have liability and business insurance, but is there any legal recourse for the people who get hurt from these defective products?
As it turns out, defective product claims are a cornerstone of personal injury law. If you’ve become injured or suffered other kinds of damage due to a defective product, then you may have a defective product liability claim. The law does require that you demonstrate a few conditions in order to prove that you have a valid defective product liability case.
Three Essential Elements
The things that you have to prove in a defective product liability case are collectively called elements in the legal profession. Some of these elements include: proving that the product is defective, proving that the defect of the product caused your personal injury, and proving that you were operating the product as it was intended to be operated.
All three of these elements need to be present in order to bring a defective product liability case to court. Obviously, a defective product is a sine qua non. You must prove that the defective product actually caused your injury, though, because sometimes people get injured for reasons that have nothing to do with the negligence or mistake of a particular company.
Moreover, the company can’t reasonably be held responsible for your personal injury if you weren’t using the product as intended. This is the defense that many pharmaceutical companies trot out when misuses and overdoses are involved. Generally speaking, the pharmaceutical company can’t necessarily be held responsible for errors on the patients’ or doctors’ part.
Making the Case
Product liability claims can run the gamut from very difficult to relatively easy to prove depending on the state that you bring the case in and the kind of product liability that you’re dealing with. Product liability can relate to a defectively manufactured product in which the product design was acceptable but the manufacturing process was botched.
Conversely, a defectively designed product, or one without adequate warning labels, are potential grounds for defect product liability claims. In these instances, a perfectly executed manufacturing process wouldn’t necessarily ameliorate the situation since an unforeseen product design flaw is behind the eventual defective product liability claim. Talk to an experienced personal injury lawyer to find out more.