The St. Louis Product Liability Attorneys at Padberg Appelbaum Knepper have successfully represented injured people in actions against small and large corporations. These have included defective airplanes, defectively designed automobiles, defectively manufactured dump truck hoists and beds, defective medical products and devices, and more.
People rely on products for just about everything: at their jobs, for entertainment, transportation, their health, and so much more. We expect products to work a specific way and we expect them not to hurt us. When these ordinary expectations are not met and it results in an injury, the manufacturer or vendor can be held accountable. Product liability is the legal responsibility of an entity to financially compensate for injury or death caused by defective merchandise.
There are different types of product liability claims and they all fall under a theory, or avenue by which a victim may recover losses:
- Breach of Warranty – There are expressed and implied “warranties,” or guarantees, that a product will perform a certain way or up to a certain standard. These can be in the form of product packaging, advertisements, a sales contract or a seller’s professional advice. A breach of warranty claim is filed when the product caused an injury while it was being used as directed, thus not meeting the terms of the warranty.
- Negligence – An entity has a duty to make and sell products free from dangerous defects and unknown risks. To claim negligence in a product liability case, the victim must prove that the manufacturer or seller either knew or should have reasonably known that the product was defective or dangerous.
- Strict Liability – Strict liability claims focus on the product itself. Under strict liability, an entity in the supply chain may be responsible if a product caused an injury or damage, even if there is no proof that the manufacturer or seller knew that the product was or could be dangerous.
- Manufacturing Defect – Errors can happen during the manufacturing of a product, affecting only one or a few of a specific product. Causes for a manufacturing defect can vary, but examples include a bad weld, ingredient contamination or poor quality materials.
- Design Defect – When a product design is defective and unreasonably dangerous when put to a reasonably anticipated use, regardless of how carefully it is manufactured. The plaintiff must prove there is a feasible alternative design. An example is a piece of equipment that does not have a safety guard, or an automobile with a defective seatbelt design.
- Insufficient Warnings or Instructions – All products have an element of danger and it is the responsibility of the manufacturer and designer to properly warn consumers about non-obvious risks. An example is a dangerous medication that cannot be made safer and they fail to warn of the side-effects.