The set of laws protecting consumers from defective product injury is called “product liability”. It differs a bit from how personal injury cases are handled in that it is a bit easier to prove liability in these cases.
Usually for personal injury cases, a claimant need to prove that the other party has been negligent, resulting to an injury. In defective product injury cases, it would be financially prohibitive as well as time-consuming for customers to show the court at exactly what point a manufacturer of a product is careless, or to find out what kind of quality control merchants have in their business, or to test each product for safety before they use them.
It is because of this that rules known as “strict liability” was developed by the law. In a nutshell, it allows a person harmed by a defective product to claim damages without proving that the manufacturer or reseller of the product had been negligent. In this way, if consumers experience defective product injury, they are entitled to be compensated by the company or companies that produced, sold, or rented the product out to them.
Strict liability, however, has a limited scope when it comes to sellers. It does not apply when the seller sells other things in his/her store aside from the item that caused injury. In other words, if the consumer bought the item from a garage sale or store that sells all kinds of other things, he/she cannot sue the seller for the injury.
Regardless of what the manufacturer claims to have done to ensure the safety of their product, liability can be established if these three conditions are met:
• There is the presence of a flaw or defect that renders the product “unreasonably dangerous”. This flaw or defect may have been acquired during manufacturing, handling, or shipping.
• The injury was sustained while the consumer was using the product according to how it is supposed to be used. For example, a consumer cannot claim damages if he was hurt while using a vacuum cleaner to clean the pores of his skin because this was not what the vacuum was supposed to be used, especially according to the labels and manuals that went with it.
• The product that caused the injury has not been altered or modified substantially from its original form. This means that if you change the components of a microwave to make it perform other functions and then it blows up on you, you cannot sue the manufacturer of the microwave anymore.
Consumers have to be careful, however, not to continue to use the product if they already know of the presence of a particularly dangerous defect. This is one of the defenses manufacturing companies use in defective product injury cases.
If the product looks like it had been used even if the defect is already obvious, or if somehow your statement indicates that you had knowledge of the defect but you still continued to use it until you got injured, then you will not be able to claim damages anymore. The law considers this act to mean that you have given up your right to claim damages for future injuries sustained by using the defective product.
If you have been a victim of a defective product injury, consult a lawyer right away so that you will be able to resolve the case in an effective and timely manner.
To help you file product liability claims for defective product injury, you can consult with our skilled Los Angeles personal injury lawyers. You can visit our website to avail of our free case analysis.
