What are My Legal Rights if Injured by a Defective Product?
If a defective product injures you, you may have a right to pursue a product liability or a negligence claim to obtain compensation for your injuries. This blog will explain how product liability law may help if a product you or someone else purchased caused your injury. The personal injury Castillo & Associates law firm will help you and your family explore your legal options.
Personal injury lawyer Domingo Castillo worked for more than thirty years in the insurance industry as a claims adjuster and senior claims examiner. He knows how insurance and insurance carriers operate. If a defective product injures you or a loved one, speak to a knowledgeable Castillo & Associates personal injury attorney by calling us at 800-497-9774 today.
What is Product Liability Law?
Strict liability is a legal doctrine that applies to certain tort cases (claims made to recover compensation after an injury) that can apply to products that injure someone. When strict product liability applies, defendants may be held responsible for their actions, whether they negligently or intentionally hurt someone or not.
Negligence can be used as another legal basis for legal claims if the facts and law support it. Your personal injury lawyer may determine that other possible causes of action may include breach of warranty, fraud, and misrepresentation.
What’s an Example of Strict Liability Law?
One example is the litigation following injuries caused by the Takata car airbag inflator device. Takata was a Japanese manufacturer that focus in vehicle airbags. They use inflator devices to quickly fill an airbag to its full size to cushion the impact a driver or passenger might suffer in an accident.
The defective inflators deteriorated over time, especially in high heat and humidity. Instead of just inflating the airbag, some inflators exploded, sending pieces of metal and plastic into the person next to it. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration states that 67 million vehicle airbags were recalled. They estimate Takata airbags killed 28 people and injured more than 400 in the US.
The legal actions filed by personal injury attorneys against Takata, the costs of the recall, the criminal charges it faced, and its loss of reputation caused the company to go bankrupt in 2018.
How Would Product Liability Apply in an Injury Case?
The plaintiff (you, the injured party) need not have purchased the item. You only need to be a person whose injury was reasonably foreseeable by the defendant (the party sued). A defendant must be:
- In the product’s chain of distribution (which could be the manufacturer, a wholesaler, a distributor, or a retailer)
- In the business of marketing or distributing the product
A defendant can be held strictly liable if it was involved in a commercial transaction related to the product at issue and in the business of doing so. Strict liability wouldn’t apply to a party that rarely or occasionally sold it, but they may be subject to a negligence claim.
California’s strict product liability laws allow claims for products that are allegedly defective due to their:
- Manufacture or assembly: The product differed from what the manufacturer intended or from what should be identical units of the same product line, and the defect existed when the product left the defendant’s control
- Design: There are two ways to establish a design defect. The product wasn’t as safe as an ordinary consumer would expect when used or misused in an intended or reasonably foreseeable way. The second is a risk-benefit analysis that considers the seriousness of the potential harm, how likely that harm, the feasibility of a safer alternative, the cost of a safer design, and what harm might be caused by this alternative design
- Inadequate warnings or instructions: The product had potential risks that were known or knowable, they posed a substantial danger if the product was used or misused in an intended or reasonably foreseeable way, ordinary consumers were unlikely to have recognized those potential risks, the defendant didn’t adequately warn or inform the user of the possible risks, and this was the legal cause of the injuries
A plaintiff with a successful product liability claim could recover:
- Damages for economic losses, such as the costs of medical care and lost earnings
- Compensation for noneconomic losses, such as pain and suffering
- Punitive damages to punish the defendant for their extremely wrongful acts
If the product caused fatal injuries, surviving family members may be able to base a wrongful death claim on product liability law.
Recover the Compensation You Deserve After an Accident
If you are injured in an accident caused by a defective product, you may be able to recover compensation for the harm you suffer. These cases may be complex and require evidence on manufacturing, design, and warnings. Personal injury Castillo & Associates will handle the logistics of your claim so you can focus on your recovery and your family. We help victims of defective products obtain the maximum monetary compensation possible. For a no-obligation consultation, call us at 800-497-9774 or use our online contact form today.
Attorney Domingo Castillo handles workers’ compensation, personal injury, family law & immigration throughout Southern California from our 5 offices: Indio, Pomona, Riverside, San Diego & Cathedral City. We help clients file injury claims, obtain residency & citizenship, and we assist families through divorce, child custody and all family law matters.
