Every year, unsuspecting consumers across the country suffer serious injuries or even death resulting from defective products. Fortunately, if you have suffered an injury due to a product defect, our judicial system allows you to seek compensation from the manufacturer or seller. But did you know that there is more than one type of product liability lawsuit? Do you know which one is right for your individual situation?
Manufacturing defect
Sometimes, a product works perfectly on paper, or in theory, but the final product has a serious defect. These defects can arise when the manufacturer accidentally uses the wrong type of material to build it, or makes a mistake in the manufacturing process. If that mistake leads to your injury, this would give rise to a lawsuit for a manufacturing defect.
Design defect
The manufacturer might have done everything perfectly, and the product may have come out exactly as it was designed, but it still might cause an injury. If this is the case, then the defect is not in the manufacturing process, but in the design. A design defect lawsuit holds the manufacturer liable for injuries that they caused through their lack of foresight and care when designing the product.
Warning defect
Manufacturers have a legal duty to warn you, the consumer, of dangers associated with the use of their product. These dangers don’t have to come only from the correct usage of the product. If it is reasonably foreseeable that a consumer will misuse a product in a certain way, manufacturers must warn of the dangers of that incorrect usage as well.
If the product works exactly as intended, and you suffered an injury because the product’s labeling didn’t put you on notice of the possibility of that injury, you may be able to bring a suit for inadequate warning.
Products liability suits are important for allowing the victim of a defective product to cover their costs. However, it’s also a way to ensure that no one else will suffer the same injury you did in the future from a dangerous product.