Any product that leads to injuries, allows the victim to file for a product liability claim. Whether it is a manufacturing defect or is damaged during the supply chain, product defects can create an item that is dangerous to use.
Type of defects
Designing
—Defective item had lost its utility in the public’s mind.
—Defective item could cause injury
—Defective item does not feature a safe design
—Furthermore, it could be made safer.
Manufacturing
—Part left out or added, or put in the wrong place.
Marketers or retailers
—Insufficient warning
Typical defense to a defective product claim
The consumer altered the product before using it. Maybe the consumer removed some important part, or made changes to specific parts. A consumer’s performance of such an action could weaken any defective product claim.
The consumer did not use the product in the way that it manufacturer had expected it to be used. A rose-clipper does not pose a danger to someone that uses it to cut a few marigolds. On the other hand, it would not be wise to take a controlled substance instead of using aspirin.
Consumer failed to read the warning label. If a company has taken the time and expense, in order to include a warning label, it cannot be hit with a charge of negligence, just because the user failed to read that same warning.
Some event intervened between the time of purchase and the time of use. Someone that has purchased a 2nd hand product is taking a chance. Something could have happened to that same item, before the first owner put it up for sale. Hence, that second owner would not have a right to expect perfect performance from the used item.
The risk of danger was obvious; the consumer should have seen it. A consumer that had been careless, when handling a knife would not have grounds for suing the same knife’s maker, if he or she were to get injured, as a result of making that careless move.
The consumer was not really injured. Although this is the last of the possible defenses on the list, it should be viewed as one of the most important ones. No one has the right to file a lawsuit against a company unless he or she has been injured by one of that same company’s products, as per personal injury lawyer in Medicine Hat.
That means suffering a true physical injury or an ongoing psychological problem. It does not mean that someone who has been especially frightened by the response from a recent purchase has the right to file a claim. Yet, too often, some consumers do just that.
Defense lawyers have learned that no small numbers of men and women have made that mistake. That is why any one of them would almost certainly plan to question the plaintiff, in order to see whether or not the plaintiff’s reported injury had existed.