You would think that the products that we buy and use in our everyday lives are tested to ensure safety. While that’s true to a certain extent, the sad reality is that all too often, these products pose a threat. This means that in the blink of an eye, you or your loved one could end up injured by a defective product, leaving you and your family with significant damages, including medical expenses, lost wages, disfigurement and pain and suffering.
What causes a defective product?
A product can be made defective at any point between its design to its marketing and selling in the store. Here are the major types of defects that may leave you susceptible to a dangerous product:
- Design defects: A product may be defective from the get-go when its safety is jeopardized in the design process. In order for liability to attach in a design defect, the risk of harm posed by the product’s design has to be foreseeable. You might also be required to show that there were safer alternatives for the product’s design.
- Manufacturing defects: Even if a product is safely designed, it can still pose a threat to consumers when errors are made during the manufacturing stage. There can be various mistakes made during the manufacturing process, including the use of inferior products or skipping key steps. Proving this type of defect can be challenging, though, as often the defective product becomes so damaged in the incident, giving rise to a lawsuit that it can be hard to analyze it. That, of course, shouldn’t deter you from taking legal action if you think a manufacturing defect left you or a loved one injured.
- Marketing defect: There are a lot of ways that a product can be rendered defective through its marketing. The product may be mislabeled in a way that inadequately advises consumers of the product’s dangers, or the product may contain insufficient instructions to educate consumers on how to safely use the product. Some products, such as medications, may also fail to adequately advise consumers of potential side effects. If you use a product in accordance with its instructions and are subsequently injured, though, you may be justified in taking legal action to recover compensation for the damages that you have suffered.
As you can see, there’s a lot that goes into ensuring that only safe products hit the market. But all too often, errors are made that put unsuspecting consumers at risk of being harmed. If you’ve been impacted by a defective or dangerous product, you may want to start considering what you can do to protect your interests moving forward.
Building a strong product liability case
It’s important to keep in mind that even if you’re able to show that a product was defective, you’ll probably still have to be prepared to defend your actions. This is because companies responsible for these defects often argue that the victim was using the product in a way that fell outside of its intended use or that the product was improperly modified; therefore, rendering it dangerous.
If you want to increase your chances of succeeding on a product liability claim, you need to be prepared to take a comprehensive approach to your case. If you want to make sure that you’re leaving no stone unturned, you might want to approach your claim with the assistance of a legal professional who has a track record of successfully pursuing these cases. Hopefully, you can find accountability and recover the compensation that you need to further your recovery and get back to your normal life.