About Product Liability

Plaintiffs' Personal Injury Law Firm

General Description

In 1944, (Escola vs. Coca-Cola Bottling Company) Associate Justice Roger J. Traynor basically made legal history with the words, "Even if there is no negligence, however, public policy demands that responsibility be fixed wherever it will most effectively reduce the hazards to life and health inherent in defective products that reach the market... It is to the public interest to discourage the marketing of products having defects that are a menace to the public...Against such a risk there should be general and constant protection and the manufacturer is best situated to afford such protection."

That judgment set the standard for nearly all 50 states in the US, Australia, Europe and Japan with regard to strict liability. With this decision came the belief that manufacturers are responsible or liable for injuries or damages that the use of their products cause. Product liability can be determined by either a defect in design, a manufacturer's defect or by failure to make proper warnings regarding the normal use of the product. Claims of product liability have been brought before the courts for negligence, strict liability, breach of warranty and consumer protection.

To be considered a good product liability case of negligence, you must be able to prove that the designers or manufacturers owed you a duty of reasonably safe operations of their product and that they breached that duty. You must also prove significant injury that directly resulted from the use of that product. A broken fingernail would not qualify as asignificant injury, however, a burned tongue from a steaming hot cup of coffee does qualify (Liebeck vs. McDonald's).

A claim of breach of warranty in product liability cases would involve failures with regard to the manufacturer's warranty whether expressed or implied. For example, if the manufacturer's warranty states that their hammers are ideal for cracking open walnuts and someone breaks a finger in the process, then this is a breach of expressed warranty. An implied warranty would be one that is commonly understood without exact expression, for example, most people understand that blow dryers are suitable for hair drying, but if this particular hair dryer gets so hot that it catches your hair on fire, then this is a breach of implied warranty.

A good example of a consumer protection product liability case is demonstrated within the automobile lemon law. The lemon law allows an individual compensation when a dealer fails to provide a vehicle to the buyer with a certain standard of quality. Vehicles with a history of mechanical issues that the seller knows about, wrecked or salvaged cars, fraudulent odometers, vehicles involved in a flood or vehicles that have been stolen, stripped and rebuilt fall under this category.

If you have purchased a product or service that directly caused an injury to yourself or someone you love, take a moment to fill out the "Quick Contact" form on the home page of this website. The team of legal professionals at Napoli Bern Ripka Law Firm will carefully evaluate your claim and if it qualifies, will work hard to bring your case to justice and much deserved compensation.

Personal Injury

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