What Constitutes Product Liability?

Product liability refers to the legal obligation that anyone involved in the manufacturing or sales process owes you to fully compensate you when you have been injured by what you have purchased. Your compensation only comes at the conclusion of a lengthy and contentious legal process, where you have proven that the product was defective or that someone else was negligent.

An experienced product liability attorney can represent you throughout the legal process, fighting to hold a large company accountable for the harm that they have caused you. The product liability lawyers at Nix Patterson have obtained numerous large jury verdicts and settlements on behalf of our injured clients.

An Introduction to Product Liability Law

When you purchase a product, you expect that the manufacturer and seller has taken reasonable care to ensure that you are receiving a safe product. You do not expect that the product you trusted would injure you in any way. Anyone who is involved in the process of selling you the product, from the manufacturer to a retailer or anyone in between, could be held legally responsible when the product causes you harm.

Product liability law actually encompasses a number of legal theories that would mean a defendant could be liable to you for damages. If you are able to prove that the product was defective or that the defendant did anything else wrong, you may be entitled to financial compensation.

Parties to a Product Liability Case

Product liability law is extremely broad. The law recognizes that you may have difficulty pinpointing exactly who was to blame for your injuries and how. Thankfully, you do not have to drill down on one specific defendant and file a lawsuit against them.

In product liability law, anyone who was involved in the stream of commerce is a potential defendant in your case. All defendants would be jointly and severally liable for your injuries.

Possible defendants in a product liability lawsuit include:

• Manufacturers (either of the product itself or a part)
• Wholesalers
• Retailers
• Distributors

Your product liability lawyer will conduct an extensive investigation of what happened and name all possible defendants in your lawsuit.

Theories of Liability in a Product Liability Lawsuit

There are four principal theories of liability that you may seek to prove in a product liability lawsuit. Chances are that your product liability attorney will include more than one of them as the basis for your case. These theories include:

• Product defects: When you can prove that the product was defective in one of a number of ways, the defendant becomes strictly liable for your damages if they are not able to successfully prove a defense.
• Negligence: The defendant may be liable when they fail to use reasonable care in designing or manufacturing the product.
• Breach of Warranty: State law imposes a number of warranties, either express or implied, and the defendant can be liable when they violate any one of them.
• Misrepresentation: A defendant can be liable when they make misrepresentations or fail to disclose certain facts about their product.

Defects in a Product Liability Case

The principles of strict liability may apply when the product is defective. Then, the burden of proof shifts to the defendant to prove one of their defenses. If not, they would become automatically liable to you for your damages.

The following may be defects that could entitle you to compensation under the theory of strict liability:

• Design defects: There is an inherent defect in the design of the product that makes it unreasonably dangerous for its intended use, and there was a safer alternative design
• Manufacturing defects: The design may have been safe, but something went wrong in the manufacturing process that made the product dangerous, such as contamination entering a product.
• Marketing defects: The defendant knew or should have known that the product was dangerous, yet they failed to take any steps to warn the public of the defect by doing something like attaching a warning label.

Our product liability lawyers will aggressively represent you in your case to gather proof that shows a product defect.

Examples of Product Liability Cases

Product liability lawsuits often lead to large settlements and jury Awards when a plaintiff is able to prove their case. Some examples of large or famous product liability cases include:

• Tobacco: Numerous makers of cigarettes entered into large settlements to pay families who lost a loved one or people who were sickened because of the dangers of their products. These companies failed to warn the public of the dangers of smoking for decades.
• Fen Phen: The maker of a popular diet pill paid billions of dollars to settle claims that its product caused heart defects and sudden heart attacks.
• Dow Corning: the manufacturer of breast implants faced thousands of lawsuits because the silicone gel leaked into womens’ bodies.

Regardless of the size or type of your product liability case, our product liability attorneys will fight to get you justice.

Proving a Product Liability Case

You need evidence that can show that the product was defective or that the defendant was negligent in the manufacturing or sale of the product. In many cases, that evidence would come from an expert witness who analyzes the product and gives their opinion on why it was defective.

Our product liability lawyers work with a wide variety of credible experts who could help prove your case. The witness needs to be established as an expert, and they must use scientifically reliable methods for their testimony to be admissible. You can expect that your expert witness will be challenged, and the court will hold a Daubert hearing to determine whether your expert can testify.

In addition, your product liability lawyer could obtain further valuable evidence in the discovery process that could help demonstrate your case. In many instances, your attorney may get their hands on corporate communications and emails that show that the defendant knew that the product was dangerous, yet they still continue to sell it. In addition, your lawyer could obtain further evidence that shows the lack of care in the design, manufacturing, or sales processes that put you at risk.

Defenses to Product Liability Lawsuits

Defendants will almost never simply accept responsibility when their products have injured you. There is simply too much at stake for them. Chances are that they are facing multiple product liability lawsuits for the same facts. They could be facing tens of millions of dollars or more. They will fight you tooth and nail until the point where they realize that it could be in their best interest to settle.

The main defense that you will see is that the product simply was not defective. You may end up in a detailed disagreement over the technical aspects of a product. The defendant may claim that there was no safer design that may not have injured you.

Additionally, the defendant often argues that your claim was filed too late and you

missed the statute of limitations. You may not have discovered your injury until years after the fact. For example, you or a loved one could have developed cancer from defective medication, but you may not even have known that it was defective until much later. The defendant will argue that you knew or should have known about your injuries and time to file a claim.

Other common defenses are that you misused the product or you assumed the risk because you knew full well of the dangers.

Resolving Product Liability Cases

There is a chance that your product liability case may go to trial, although the chances are slight. Much depends on when and how your case is heard. Many product liability cases proceed as part of multidistrict litigation. In these cases, a handful of lawsuits are selected to be the first bellwether cases that are tried.

 Both plaintiffs and defense attorneys may want to get a readout on how the jury would view the evidence in your case. If the defendants lose some or all of the bellwether cases, and they are ordered to pay large damages, they may be more likely to settle your case. In that event, the defendant may enter a global settlement and establish a fund against which you may file a claim and negotiate a settlement.

Why You Need a Product Liability Attorney

Product liability lawsuits are very hard-fought legal matters. These cases rely on different types of evidence than other personal injury lawsuits, and they are heavily scientific. In addition, you can expect that the defendant will have “lawyered up” with some of the highest-priced attorneys in the country. These court dockets are very heavy with pretrial motions with extremely high stakes.

You need an experienced product liability attorney who is up to the job and knows how to take on some of the nation’s largest companies who are extremely motivated to defeat your case. A product liability lawyer may do the following for your case:

• Evidence gathering: Investigate your case and gather evidence to include with the initial lawsuit
• Drafting legal filings: draft the lawsuit complaint that begins the case in court and file and respond to any motions
• Discovery: Aggressively work to build your case by obtaining evidence from the other party while working to defend you and your Witnesses in depositions
• Litigation: Present your evidence to the jury in the hopes of proving a defect or negligence
• Settlement negotiations: Discussing a possible settlement to your case with the defendant at any point during the litigation process
• Filing a claim: Representing you when you file your claim against a global settlement fund to be fully compensated for your injuries.

Contact a Product Liability Attorney Today

If you or a loved one has been injured by a product that you trusted, reach out to a product liability lawyer at Nix Patterson today. Just because a company is large and has the resources to hire expensive attorneys does not mean that they can automatically get out of paying you damages. Our lawyers will vigorously fight for your legal right to compensation, and we will not stand for corporate misconduct that has injured our clients.

You can schedule a free initial consultation with a product liability attorney today by calling us at 512-328-5333 or reaching out online. Not only is the consultation free, but there is never any fee to you unless you win your case.