Dangerous product defects can cause devastating injuries to consumers. If you have been injured in such a way, you may be wondering what happens next. You may have legal recourse and seek compensation for your injuries through a product liability claim. There are, however, certain things you will need to prove to make a successful claim.
How to Prove a Product Liability Case
In order to substantiate a product liability claim, you will need to prove several things.
- First, you will need to prove that you were injured or suffered losses. If there is no physical injury or any kind of monetary loss, then there are no damages. If there are no damages, there is no case.
- Second, you will need to prove that the product causing your injury or loss was, in fact, defective. There are several types of product defects that you may claim. There may have been a defect in the design of the product. This means that, even if the product was perfectly manufactured according to the design, it still would have been defective. There may also have been a manufacturing defect you are claiming. This means that the product was defective in the way that it was produced or manufactured. Usually in this type of case, the product design was okay, but something went wrong in the actual making of the product. Another type of product defect is a warning defect, which exists when a product has inadequate warning labels or instructions.
- Third, you must show that the product defect caused your injury. A product liability claim is not simply one where a person was injured when using a defective product. In this type of claim, the defect of the product must have been the direct cause of the injury or loss sustained.
- Fourth, you must be able to prove that you were using the product as it was intended. You do not need to use the product according to the exact specifications of the manufacturer, but you do need to show that you were at least using the product in a way the manufacturer could reasonably expect an ordinary consumer to use it.
Anything else that you may need to prove to substantiate your product liability claim will depend on other things like what theory you are bringing the claim under. If you are bringing the claim under a theory of negligence or a breach of warranty, you must prove that the product seller or manufacturer owed a duty to provide a safe product to consumers. In a breach of warranty case, you would be asserting that the manufacturer violated a warranty they provided to the consumer. You will need to prove that such a warranty of the product was provided, but the warranty was violated and that violation caused injury. Lastly, you may seek to bring a product liability claim under a theory of strict liability. Under strict liability, negligence does not need to be proven. It is enough to show that the injury was directly caused by a defect in a product.
Product Liability Attorneys
As consumers, we depend on companies to produce products that are safe for our use. If you have been injured by a defective product, Cooper Schall & Levy will fight to hold the necessary parties responsible. We will fight to get you the compensation you deserve. Contact us today.
