What is Products Liability?
Products liability is the area of law governing situations in which a manufacturer, distributor, supplier, or retailer places a defective or dangerous product in the hands of consumers, and the product causes someone harm. Under Pennsylvania law, a product must meet the consumer’s ordinary expectations, or the risks of the product must not outweigh its benefits. Typically, when a product has an unexpected hazard, it doesn’t meet the ordinary consumer’s expectations.
What Are Some Product Defects?
The three most common product defects are:
- Design defects are in the product’s design and present in every unit of the product when manufactured to the intended specifications.
- Manufacturing defects are flaws that arise during the manufacturing and assembly process.
- Failures to warn come about because a manufacturer or seller fails to provide adequate instructions or warnings with the product.
Who is Responsible for a Defective Product in Pennsylvania?
Many businesses could be responsible for injuries caused by a defective product in Pennsylvania, depending on the circumstances and law. Your fight may be against the company responsible for the design, manufacture, distribution, or sale. It’s essential to work with a defective product attorney to determine who is liable.
Proving Liability in a Products Case
There are several theories of liability when it comes to consumer products. It’s important to talk with a lawyer about what’s suitable for your case. You may file a claim based on ordinary negligence, strict liability, or a breach of warranty.
- Ordinary negligence means a business had a duty to use reasonable care in designing and manufacturing a product, breached that duty, and created an unsafe product, which caused the injury.
- Strict liability means a business is liable for injuries its product caused if you establish it was defective.
- Breach of warranty means the business failed to meet an express or implied promise regarding the product.
How Long Do I Have to File a Products Liability Case in Pennsylvania?
You generally have two years from when you were injured to file a products liability lawsuit in Pennsylvania. Various factors might give you more or less time, which is why it is important to consult our Pennsylvania products liability attorneys at Atlee Hall. If you miss the deadline, you lose your right to compensation.
Products Liability Damages & Making You Whole
When a dangerous product harms you or a loved one in Pennsylvania, you have the right to demand justice. In our legal system, that means recovering compensation.
The primary purpose of a settlement or verdict is to make you financially whole. This ensures you can pay medical bills, make up for lost wages, and are compensated for your pain and suffering. However, a recovery also serves the critical purpose of forcing businesses to be more careful in designing, manufacturing, and selling their products.
By demanding justice, you’re helping to protect others from buying or receiving a dangerous product.
Recovering What You Lost
Compensation for a defective product injury (referred to as damages) may include:
- Economic Damages: This compensation covers your past and future monetary expenses, such as medical bills, lost wages, lost earning capacity, and out-of-pocket expenses.
- Non-Economic Damages: This compensation covers intangible losses, such as pain and suffering, scarring, disfigurement, embarrassment, humiliation, and the loss of enjoyment of life.
- Wrongful Death & Survival Damages: Close surviving relatives, such as a spouse, child, or parent, may recover wrongful death damages, including medical bills, funeral and estate expenses, and their loved one’s lost income. They may also recover for the loss of support and guidance of their loved one. A decedent’s estate can recover survival damages, which are those based on your loved one’s injuries, such as pain and suffering and lost earnings.
- Loss of Consortium: An injured person’s spouse can recover compensation for the loss of their husband or wife’s services, assistance, support, comfort, companionship, and sexual relationship.
At Atlee Hall, our products liability attorneys strive to hold companies accountable for their actions, which cause harm. We go above and beyond to carefully assess your damages and paint a clear picture of what you’ve gone through to win fair compensation.
How to Prove Products Liability
Whether we intend to resolve your case through a settlement or jury verdict, our product lawyers prepare every case as if we’re going to trial. Through our years of experience, we’ve become skilled in showing a judge and jury how you’ve suffered through compelling evidence and arguments the other side can’t defeat.
