Have You Been Injured by a Dangerous or Defective Product?
Product liability claims for injuries and death due to a dangerous product are made under a state’s common law. Missouri, Illinois and most states have basic law that if one of their citizens is injured by a product that is unreasonably dangerous for its foreseeable or reasonably anticipated use, the distributor and/or manufacturer of the product is liable for injuries resulting therefrom. If there is a defect or dangerous condition in a manufactured product, it should be engineered out. If it cannot be engineered out, it should be adequately warned against. Thus, as a part of a products liability claim, the manufacturer can attempt to ameliorate his liability by asserting that he properly warned against potential dangers in a product (for instance, wear safety goggles while operating a chain saw). However, sometimes manufacturers provide warnings that are inadequate and do not clearly or adequately inform the purchasers or users of a product about its dangers. Product liability or dangerous products just describes the general nature of this claim. There are a myriad of products with safety defects over the years, and trial lawyers like at Cantor & Burger, have worked tirelessly to improve the safety of consumer goods in the United States and abroad. Please note that if a manufacturer cannot be identified for a product, even the distributors who handled the product in the “stream of commerce” are held liable for injuries resulting from the defect or dangerous condition. A dangerous condition can cause injuries, or death.
As product liability attorneys we frequently review the consumer products safety commission bulletins and postings to see recalled and dangerous products.
Section 402 of the restatement of torts provides a glimpse of the overall law in this area and states:
Responding to the need to provide both reasonable protection for the interests of consumers and workers and practicable standards of conduct for those who produce goods, the new Restatement articulates clearer answers to the question of whether a product is defective by formulating three distinct categories of product defect and the legal standards appropriate to each:
• Manufacturing Defects — when the product departs from its intended design, even if all possible care was exercised.
• Design Defects — when the foreseeable risks of harm posed by the product could have been reduced or avoided by the adoption of a reasonable alternative design, and failure to use the alternative design renders the product not reasonably safe.
• Inadequate Instructions or Warnings Defects — when the foreseeable risks of harm posed by the product could have been reduced or avoided by reasonable instructions or warnings, and their omission renders the product not reasonably safe.
Mark Cantor and Gary Burger are experienced product liability attorneys. They have the experience, knowledge, experts, financial resources and staff to win your product liability case. Call us at 314 542-9999 for a free consultation and we do not charge a fee unless we recover money for you.
