Product Defects

As consumers, we should expect that the goods we purchase are safe. Yet, sometimes the products we purchase have defective designs, defective manufacturing or fail to provide adequate warning of the dangers associated with using them. Each year, countless injuries result from dangerous or defective products. Some of these injuries can be catastrophic and life-altering, and are all the more tragic considering that there often could have been steps taken to prevent such incidences from occurring.

If you or a loved one have been injured by a defective or dangerous product, you may be entitled to compensation for your pain and suffering and loss through a product liability claim.

Product retailers, manufacturers, designers and suppliers have a duty to keep the products they sell to consumers in a safe condition and may be liable for unsafe, faulty, poorly designed, badly manufactured or carelessly stored products.

The law protects consumers from a wide variety of consumer and industrial product defects and includes such items as:

• Defective, dangerous or hazardous toys
• Faulty or dangerous electrical products
• Defective or poorly designed household appliances
• Defective or poorly designed medical devices
• Dangerous nutritional supplements, over-the-counter drugs and prescription medications
• Defective or dangerously designed cars and car parts
• Various other product defects.

Pennsylvania is a “strict product liability state.” These means that unlike in other personal injury cases where the reasonableness of the defendant’s conduct are considered, in PA, no consideration is given to whether or not the defendant acted reasonably. Thus, the law states that companies that manufacture, supply or sell goods in the state are liable from any injuries that result from a defective product when it is used as intended. Any reasonably foreseeable use or misuse of a product is considered to be a use “as intended.”

While strict product liability attaches, these cases can be very complicated and require the attention of a skilled and knowledgeable attorney, to prove that a product was, in fact, defective, the defective product caused one’s injuries, and one’s uses were as intended.

Product liability comes in three varieties, design defects, manufacturing defects and marketing or “failure to warn” defects. In failure to warn situations, a manufacturer or supplier’s failure to provide necessary warnings and instructions on possible risks of the product can, in and of itself, be viewed as a defect.

If you believe that you or a loved one has been the victim of a defective product that has resulted in a serious injury or death, contact the experienced attorneys at Silver & Silver today for a free consultation at 610-658-0500.

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