What You Need to Know About Your Injuries from a Defective Product

What happens if you’ve been injured due to a defective product in Redding, CA? Defective products are responsible for thousands of injuries across America each year, leaving victims with expensive and potentially life-altering damage. Luckily, victims can recover compensation for their injuries as a result of product liability law.

Types of product defects

Your case is likely to involve one of these three key types of product defects:

• Manufacturing defects: Pursuing a claim under a theory of manufacturing duty requires you to prove that a defect occurred while the product was manufactured or assembled.
• Design defects: Design defects means that the product is designed to be inherently unsafe, even before manufacturing or production begins.
• Warning defects: Warning defects can cover insufficient instructions or safety warnings, improper labeling or other failure to warn consumers of their danger.

Who’s responsible?

In California, product liability is a strict liability claim, meaning that even if the company wasn’t negligent in their design, manufacturing and warning, they’re still responsible for any injuries resulting from use of their product. However, that doesn’t mean every injury is lawsuit-worthy or a guaranteed win—you’ll still need to prove the elements of the claim to recover damages.

What you’ll need to prove

To recover on a product liability claim, you’ll need to prove all of these four elements. Note that you don’t have to prove that the defendant was negligent or intended to inflict harm:

• The defendant designed, manufactured or sold a defective product: This is often the easiest element to prove, whether there was one or more defects present.
• The product had the defect when it left the defendant’s possession: This element requires you to prove that the product wasn’t altered or damaged between manufacturing and the injury. For example, if you altered a product to make it faster or more powerful, that’s not the manufacturer’s responsibility.
• The victim used the product in a reasonably foreseeable manner: “Reasonably foreseeable” means that the company has a duty to determine how the product might be used—or misused—and issue adequate warnings. They don’t need to anticipate every possible misuse, but if a jury decides they should have foreseen the use or misuse, they’ll be held strictly liable.
• The victim suffered injury as a result of the defect: Finally, you’ll need to prove that the injuries were directly caused by the product defect. For example, if your brand-new tires blow out on a busy freeway through no fault of your own, and you’re involved in a crash, that would be a direct result of a manufacturing or design defect.

If you have injuries as a result of a defective product in Redding, CA, you’ll need to file a lawsuit within two years of the date of injury. As always, the sooner you file your claim, the better. Be sure to call an experienced personal injury attorney, like The Law Offices of Max G. Arnold, Inc., for help with your claim. We offer consultations to help determine whether you have a case.

Categorised in: Personal Injury Lawyer