Had a failed machine that resulted in injury? Ate spoiled food that you didn’t know? Had your car do something that it wasn’t intended to do? All of these are compensable under product liability claims. All producers have a duty to the consumer to properly take measures for their product to function properly, be it food, cloth, or machinery. If a manufacturer flouts this, damaging a consumer, product liability claims are applicable. In such cases, it’s best to know a reliable injury lawyer in Detroit.
What are the kinds of product defects?
There are three kinds of product defects namely:
- Design defect – is when a product is flawed from the start, even before it came to be as a product. In this type, a product has inherently flawed characteristics, which renders it unsafe.
- Manufacturing defect – is when a product is rendered unsafe by errors in manufacturing.
- Marketing defect – is when a product isn’t performing up to the indicated standards and is labeled incorrect, causing it to be operated in hazardous conditions.
Who are responsible?
A product liability case starts in a defective product sold in the marketplace, without the consumer knowing of such. There used to be a privity of contract that had to exist between the consumer and the supplier, as time went, it was deemed passé. Nowadays, such requirement isn’t necessary, and the buyer of such defective product isn’t the sole party responsible for filing charges, as anyone who may have been affected by the same defected products.
- The parties liable to this case are:
- The product manufacturer
- The manufacturer of the product components
- The assembler of the product
- The wholesaler
- The retailer that sold such product
- What legal measures can be taken?
The plaintiff can always claim in defense that they haven’t sufficiently recognized who supplies the product that causes the injury. The complaining party should be able to connect the defective product to any of the aforementioned parties earlier. In the case of defective medication, there is a rule known as “market share liability”, where if a plaintiff cannot identify the manufacturer, the manufacturers of the specified drug would be held liable according to how large is their sales in the area that the incident occurred.
A product liability attorney can be called in to clarify and explain more intricate matte. They can also help with gathering witnesses and testimonies of experts and users who had the same problems as the plaintiff with the same product. Call up one to be informed of what legal action you can make and decide on legal matters soundly.