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Product liability is a section of personal injury law that deals with injuries caused by unsafe products. When a claimant brings forth a claim, they can’t just say that it was dangerous, and they got hurt while using it. If they want their claim to have a better chance of succeeding, then they need to prove how the product was defective, and why that is the manufacturer’s fault.
Product defects can take one of three forms:
- Design: All products start with a design phase, and mistakes can happen during it. A design error can make a product dangerous before it ever even exists. For example, the Takata Inc. airbags that become globally notorious for causing deaths and severe injuries were defective by design. The airbag inflators used a chemical component that became explosively unstable with time, especially when exposed to heat. At no point was the chemical component safe for this use, so the airbags were already defective when only on a blueprint.
- Manufacturing: Once a product has been designed and approved, it can move to the manufacturing phase. This phase of production is where many product defects happen because it spans from the start of manufacturing to when the product is placed on a shelf. Manufacturing defects tend to affect a batch or batches of a product, but not all similar products. Certain Neutrogena® sunscreen products have been in the news recently due to a manufacturing defect that caused some batches of sunscreen to become contaminated with benzene, a known carcinogen.
- Marketing: A marketing defect is any issue with how a product is advertised or explained to a consumer. Product packaging, included safety and use instructions, warning labels, and commercials are all examples of product marketing, and they can all be defective if the wrong or misleading information is relayed to the consumer. The popular heartburn medication Zantac was recently recalled because its ranitidine can cause stomach cancer, which is something its manufacturers might have known. Because the product packaging never warned the consumer that Zantac might be dangerous, the manufacturer committed a marketing defect error.
Were you hurt by a defective product? If you live in Glendale or Santa Clarita, then the Law Offices of Wax & Wax can help you explore your options. Our team knows how to prove a product was dangerously defective and why that is the manufacturer’s fault. Contact us today for a no-cost consultation with our attorneys.