When you buy any consumer product, you presume that the manufacturer has done proper research and taken appropriate measures to ensure that anyone using it is safe. Unfortunately, firms often use shortcuts when creating products to spend less and maximize profits.

They may also fail to concentrate on manufacturing, testing, and designing the products to launch them on the market before their competitors. That can lead to defective products. Fortunately, you have every right to take legal action to get compensation for injury caused by faulty products.

What Is Product Liability?

Product liability is a legal claim for injuries caused by a defective product. When you make a product liability claim, you can get compensation for losses such as medical expenses paid in cash, lost work income, loss of companionship, loss of enjoyment of life, property damage or loss, and physical pain and suffering.

If you have any product liability claim, it would be best to hire a Fort Myers defective products lawyer to advise you on the best way to handle the case.

3 Types of Product Liability Claims You Can Make

You can make a product liability claim based on the following legal theories:

• Negligence
• Strict liability
• Breach of warranty

Your claim will depend on the facts and the law governing the state where you present the claim. You can make build your claim using some of the three theories provided above.

Negligence

When filing the negligence claim, you can provide proof that the product caused injuries through:

• Product design: You can claim that the product’s designer did not use proper care while creating the item to reduce the risk of injury to people using it.
• Product manufacturing: You can claim that the product’s manufacturer failed to monitor their staff, or one part of the item contained substandard materials, or any other way through which the manufacturer could not follow proper steps to oversee a safe assembling of the product.
• Marketing: The claims include the failure of the manufacturing company to provide proper warnings about the safety risks involved while using the product.

If you present a negligence claim, you must show that the company at fault (the manufacturer, designer, marketer, wholesaler, or retailer) failed to provide proper care when manufacturing, designing or marketing the product. Due to the failure to provide the proper care during the various processes, the defective product caused your injuries.

Strict Liability

Strict liability is any liability without fault or proof. You can impose it on showing that a product had deep-rooted defects that caused you injury. When making a strict liability claim, you only need to prove that the product you bought from the market contained a harmful defect.

You’ll not need to establish what made the product defective, but that it was inherently flawed and caused you some injuries, even though you used it correctly.

Breach of Warranty

A warranty is a guarantee provided by companies that their products will be reliable and of good quality. Two types of warranties may apply in a product liability case, depending on the law of the state where you present the claim: express warranties and implied warranties.

Express warranty is any statement by a product’s manufacturer or seller, verbally or in writing, concerning its quality, use, and reliability. You may find express warranties on instructions, packaging, or product advertisement.

For example, you may purchase a particular type of glue with a statement on its packaging stating that it is excellent for joining plastic. If you use it to enter your car’s bumper and it fails, causing injury, you can present claims based on breach of express warranty.

The law in some states allows for claims for implied warranties for consumer products sold in the localities. The two implied warranties you may claim are the warranty of fitness for a particular purpose and the warranty of merchantability.

The implied warranty of fitness for a specific purpose finds a seller liable if they knew the consumer bought the product for a particular purpose. On the other hand, the merchantability warranty guarantees the usage of any product you purchase in an intended manner without risking getting harmed.

Contact a Lawyer for Help

When faced with any of the above defective product claims, involve a lawyer who will guide you on how best to present the claim in a court of law. If you provide enough proof, the court will order compensation for any injuries caused by the defective product.

Leland D. Bengtson

As a journalist, Leland D. Bengtson dedicated most of his career to law reporting. His greatest satisfaction is to convey legal matters to the public in a language that they can understand. He is active on various platforms and media outlets, writing about common legal issues that people confront with every day. While medical malpractice is his strong suit, Leland covers plenty of other topics, including personal injury cases, family law, and other civil and even criminal legal matters