An area of law we often hear about in the news, or we associate with large verdicts, is that of product liability. This is an area of law where those who produce, distribute or sell products can be held responsible for injuries caused by those products. Injuries from these products can result from the product failing, from the product operating as intended but they still cause injuries because of improper design or due to a failure to warn the consumer of certain dangers associated with the product.
These laws are, for the most part, govern by the laws of each State. In California, there are four potential theories of liability, these include, negligence, strict liability, breach of warranty and various consumer protection laws. Here are some examples of product liability claims. A woman uses a pressure cooker to cook some soup. The pressure cooker has a timer on it along with a locking mechanism to keep the lid closed during operation. The timer goes off indicating that the soup is complete. The lock disengages, however, the pressure in the cooker has not all been released. The woman opens the lid and scalding soup bursts from the cooker, scalding the woman from her neck down to her waist. Another example is when a man was performing an industrial cleaning job with a high pressure water hose when the 10-inch brass hose nozzle split apart, striking his face and causing extensive facial fractures, eye damage, dental injuries, traumatic brain injury and additional psychiatric injuries. It was found that the nozzle was improperly cast, resulting in one wall being inordinately thick while the opposite side was less than two human hairs thick. Both of these cases resulted in awards over a million dollars because of the injuries suffered from either improperly designed products, like the pressure cooker, or improperly manufactured products like the nozzle.
Just because a product is sold to the public does not mean it is safe. If you believe a product was defective and caused you or a loved one injuries, give us a call so we can assist you in evaluating whether you have a claim.
