Defective products can cause serious injuries. It is important for consumers to understand the steps they can take when they have been injured if they believe that the company that made that product was responsible and did not uphold their duty of care to the consumer.
But this isn’t to say that all product defects look the same. There are numerous categories that have to be considered. Three of them are noted below:
Design defects
To start with, the design itself may be problematic. Say that a firearm is designed without a safety or a chainsaw is designed without a handguard. It does not adhere to the manufacturing codes and is inherently unsafe as soon as the consumer receives it.
Manufacturing defects
In other cases, there are manufacturing errors that make the product unsafe, even if the design should have been safe itself. An example of this could be if the gun was designed with a safety or the chainsaw was designed with a guard, but it was installed improperly at the manufacturing plant, so it doesn’t work or it disengages on its own.
Labeling defects
Finally, there are some cases in which a product is considered to be defective if the labels, instructions and warnings are not sufficient. This is commonly cited in defective drug cases. The drug itself may technically be safe for consumer use, but if the warning label instructs someone to take a dose that is too high, they could inadvertently suffer harm.
If you or a family member has been harmed by a defective product, make sure you understand all of your legal options.