What Is Product Liability?
You have most likely heard of product liability at some stage. It may sound complicated, but in truth, it is actually quite simple. Product liability refers to the legal liability that a manufacturer has if they sell or make a defective product. Product liability is a significant concern for distributors and manufacturers and can be brought as a personal injury claim.
Defective products can harm a company’s reputation, result in expensive lawsuits, and possibly even injure the company’s customers. A product liability case will often include a claim for damages that a person levels against the seller or manufacturer of a certain product because the product injured them. The plaintiff will attempt to prove that how the product was marketed or created led to the injury that they suffered.
Product Liability Law
One important point that any product liability lawyer will make when discussing this topic is that product liability law is one kind of private law. More specifically, product liability law covers the regulation, enforcement, and definition of rights among corporations, associations, and private individuals. This law differs from public law in that public law covers determining rights between private people and the governments whose laws apply to those people. This is an important distinction since you might generally think of the determination of rights as it applies to governments and their people.
What Kinds of Product Liability Claims Can Be Brought?
Product liability law has its basis in both contract law and tort law. Additionally, quite a few state legislatures have put product liability statutes in place to define product liability within particular states. No uniform federal law concerning product liability is in place at this moment. In any case, there are three main categories when it comes to product liability. These three categories are defective design, defective manufacturing, and a company’s failure to give customers adequate instructions or warnings about how to use the product properly.
An Atlanta product liability lawyer would also add that you should understand these categories to figure out whether or not your claim is valid. You should keep in mind that understanding these categories is critical so that you and your lawyer can figure out what strategy you should implement when presenting your product liability case. As stated previously, there is no uniform federal law concerning product liability in place right now. However, all states in the US have roughly the same basic laws when it comes to the main categories of product liability.
Main Categories of Product Liability
The main types of product liability are a breach of warranty, marketing defects, manufacturing defects, and design defects. Manufacturing defects are the simplest kind of defect. Manufacturing defects happen when some issue arises during the creation of a specific product.
One example of such an issue is when an error happens at the factory’s assembly line. This error makes that specific product different from all other products that are part of its line. A more specific example is that a car accident that happened because of malfunctioning brakes might have happened because of an error in creating that particular brake set.
Marketing Defects
Product liability also includes marketing defects. These defects happen when a manufacturer fails to give customers a proper warning about a product’s inherent risks or gives them appropriate instructions on how to use a product. Doing so can lead to a product liability claim.
Design Defects
Design defects are another type of product liability. This means that no error happened in the manufacturing process and that the design was flawed from the start. Proving that the design of a product was unsafe could involve demonstrating that the company could have created a safer design at an acceptable cost. However, manufacturers aren’t liable if they do not warn customers about obvious risks. Some examples of these obvious risks include the possibility that you could fall from a ladder or that a knife is sharp. Marketing defects can and do arise in the pharmaceutical industry.
Breach of Warranty
Breach of warranty is a type of product liability that usually arises if a product doesn’t live up to the warranty’s terms. If this happens and the product has a written warranty, you may be able to bring a claim due to a breach of express warranty. Additionally, you may also be able to file a claim based on a breach of implied warranty. This could be possible if state law applies a warranty to a specific kind of product, even in the event that the distributor or manufacturer does not apply a warranty to that kind of product.
How Does Georgia Law Apply to Product Liability Claims?
Starting with a defective design claim, Georgia law states that the court may examine evidence that a different design would have ensured the product was safer. The court also considers whether or not a different design was possible and marketable. Georgia courts can determine if the product’s design is defective or not by using risk-utility analysis. A risk-utility analysis compares the product design’s inherent risks to the benefits one can gain from the product.
The consumer also has to prove that their injury was really caused by the defective design. It is not good enough if the defective design was unrelated to the consumer’s injury. More broadly, Georgia law applies strict liability laws to the manufacturer of a product in a lawsuit brought due to product liability. The manufacturer can be held liable for the defective product regardless of whether or not they were aware of the defect or if they intended for the product to be dangerous or defective.
Atlanta Product Liability Lawsuits
If you need an Atlanta product liability lawyer to assist you with a product liability lawsuit, choose Barnwell Law Group. We are highly experienced and competent, so you can trust us with your product liability lawsuit. Additionally, we treat all of our clients with respect and friendliness. Visit our website or call (678) 501-7585 to request a free consultation today. We hope to give you top-notch legal assistance with your product liability lawsuit soon.