What is considered a defective product?

Dangerous manufacturer defects are the cause of many across the United States including those involving insufficient warnings, design defect, and maker error in the product.

Every year, they cause substantial injury and even many deaths. Some frequent sources of deadly product defects include medications, lawn sprays, automobiles, business construction equipment, and even home building components.

Contact the attorneys of our law firm if a dangerous company product harmed you in an accident. A skilled attorney, experienced in product liability law, can speak with you about your injury and whether or not you may have a case against the manufacturer.

The following sections of this site review these concepts in more detail and search for answers for your and your family. Contact us or your lawyer or attorneys if you or another user have experienced harm due a product’s defect.

Types of Defects that Can Lead to Claims

When identifying whether or not you may have product liability claims with a lawyer, it is important to understand that there are three broad categories of defective product claims for which defendants can be held liable for personal injury or other damages.

We will review each of three main product liability claim types now and discuss examples of evidence or warnings that might put you at risk.

Manufacturing Defect Cause of Action

These are by far the most frequent product liability claim type. This case occurs when a manufacturers makes something with a safety defect that makes it unreasonable unsafe for the consumer to use it as it was intended to be used.

Note, this assumes that the design of the item was reasonable and / or safe and that the manufacturer deviated from the safe design and produced the good in a defective manner.

An example (examples) of a manufacturing defect product liability claim would be if your car tire came off while driving because it was defectively attached by the auto maker. Another manufacturing defect would be if the windows in your home let in water which flooded your house because the glass was shoddy.

There are many other ways a manufacturing defect can lead to personal injury and loss including these. In most cases, the manufacturer would have strict liability.

Design Defects and Liability Claims

A defective product can enter the stream of commerce because its defectively designed. If you can show that there was no way the good could be safe because of the design defects, then you might have product liability claims here under product liability law.

For example, a designer may be held liable in court if the car product’s design was such that it lit on fire every time a driver started the ignition. The plaintiff might say that the design defect rendered the car unsafe and could possibly bring a successful claim if they were injured or suffered pecuniary loss.

Failure to Warn Product Liability Claims

You may be able to bring a products liability suit if the maker, seller, or designer committed a failure to warn error. This happens when they do not attach an adequate warning, label, or instruction to the item and that makes the product defective.

Failure to warn cases and defective products actions are very common with medications and health care. A pharmaceutical company may be held liable if courts or a court determines they offer poor instructions which made the medications to be defective.

For instance, if a company did not tell consumers that their pills could lead to heart attack, and someone was injured in that manner, then a court could held for the plaintiff in a subsequent failure to warn product liability case.

Talk to a Chicago product liability attorney or group of attorneys if faulty safety warnings or marketing instructions sold in the chain of commerce prove to harm you or put you at adequate risk of harm. Our team can help prove that the manufactured item had insufficient warning, instructions, or lack of safety measures.

Determining Liability in a Product Liability Accident

After you review what is determined to be a defective product, the following topic that is normally broached is that of who can be held liable for the manufactured product defect(s). Generally, there are three separate parties who can possibly be held responsible for defective products: manufacturer; owner; seller.

Manufacturers: Manufacturers could be held liable in court for a product or products that contain a flaw in their manufacture or design. This must occur under their control. Also, the defective manufacturing must render the item defective before any use by the consumer for the adequate claim to succeed. Note, a consumer can also proceed on a claim against manufacturers on an adequate warning/ failure to warn case as well. Consult your attorney, lawyer, or legal advisor on the best course of action.

Owners: Some times, product defects can be exacerbated by unsafe, unreasonable, or negligent conduct regarding a risky product. If someone recklessly used a defective product, then you could sue that person and include them in your cause of action against the other defendant in your product liability case.

Sellers: Whoever sold you the defective product could also face scrutiny in design defect/product defects/or similar claim. They must have known about the defective condition, design, instructions, or label prior to the sale and accident for you to succeed in a future legal claim under the product defect law.

What Does it Mean to Bring a Product Liability Claim?

Product liability law places responsibility on the maker, seller, owner, or designer of a defective product after it reaches a consumer and causes them injury regardless of their fault or negligence. Different laws and rules identify exactly which of these parties will shoulder the burden for the injury described in the claim by the attorney.

States vary how you must prove your defective product complaint. However, some have adopted a standard set of laws including those found in the Uniform Commercial Code.

From these, we can set out a basic framework for a claim over injuries suffered from a defective product:

• The product was defectively made; designed; used; or sold;
• The product was intended for sale and without any break in the chain of commercial distribution;
• The plaintiff was injured while using the product as reasonably intended due to the defect in the product.,

This outline sets forth a legal basis for which an injured person can recover under the law after defects in a product manufacturing, design, marketing, etc. Contact an attorney or lawyer after an accident to see if the laws allow you to collect compensation for your injuries in a lawsuit or related claim.

Compensation Available in Product Liability Cases

We want to provide some examples of summaries of jury awards and settlements involving a defective product design defect, manufacturer defects, manufacturing product error, company or business faulty products, and other related topics.

$7,000,000 Wrongful Death Lawsuit for Defective Products; 2006:

A couple were traveling in a travel trailer across the country. They were sleeping when a fire broke out from inside the vehicle. Apparently, the refrigerator product was defective as well as dangerous and known to create flammable situations for a user. The manufacturer knew this fact about the product.

Unfortunately, the couple did not realize this and were caught inside when a fire broke out due to that exact defective condition. The woman was badly injured with second and third-degree burns. The man died from his injuries.

This case was brought as a result for injury and wrongful death. The evidence issue of liability was not really in dispute because the manufacturer had sent out a recall notice of defect. The decedent’s family received that several months after he died.

After prolonged negotiations, lawyers for the plaintiffs settled with defendants (insurance companies for the refrigerator and vehicle manufacturers) for a combined compensation package of $7 million.

$1,800,000 Wrongful Death Settlement; Products Liability Case; 2006:

A three-year-old boy was eating dinner in a dinette chair when he suddenly fell through the bottom and onto the ground. He sustained critical injuries which precipitated a seizure due to the product’s dangerous condition.

Emergency medical responders rushed him to the local hospital, Lutheran General, for medical attention. Unfortunately, the boy died the following day.

His family brought these wrongful death cases soon after for the injuries he suffered and the tremendous grief and loss they experienced as a result of his tragic passing. There were two different defendants here and that required the personal injury lawyers for the family to deal with two different insurance companies.

They argued this was a standard products liability case and that both were liable and at fault for the family’s damages from product’s defect. In the end, they were able to secure $1 million from one and $800,000 from the other for a combined $1.8 million settlement.

$2,325,000 Settlement; Defective Products Wrongful Death Cases; 1997:

A man in his forties was piloting his Cessna around Illinois. A part became lodged in the engine. This defective and dangerous manufactured product caused him to lose control of the plane. It subsequently crashed and he died from sustained in the incident. His wife and son survived him. They brought this wrongful death lawsuit on his and their behalf for damages through an attorney.

They sued the maker of the defective product, the maker of the plane, and the service company that operated on the plane and dangerous product. The family argued that all of the defendants were negligent in various ways and responsible for the wrongful death of their loved one. They sought compensation for his personal injuries as well as their grief, expenses, and lost support and companionship.

Not long after this claim was filed, the insurance companies of the separate defendants began settlement talks with the plaintiffs. The family recovered $2,325,000 from all of them collectively for their legal economic damages and legal non economic damages.

Talk to a Lawyer About Your Recovery Today

Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers LLC helps personal injury victims every day. As with all of our cases, we represent clients in product liability lawsuits on a contingency fee basis where we charge a fee for legal services only when we recovery for you.

If we are unsuccessful getting compensation for you then our services are completely free. We can help you during this critical time, just call our offices to find out how.

Any user can search this site or use our service if they are harmed by a defective product. But contacting us might help in addition to reviewing this site after suffering damage from a faulty product.