Tampa Dangerous and Defective Product Lawyers
As a consumer, we expect that a manufacturer has upheld the social and legal responsibility to ensure their product meets all safety requirements and lacks defects. The team of product liability lawyers at Swope, Rodante P.A works tirelessly to pursue justice for clients who have suffered catastrophic injuries as a result of defective or unsafe products. Our trial attorneys, know the trust you place in the manufactured goods you use to ensure your safety and the safety of your family and employees.
Design, Manufacturing, and Marketing Defects
In our law firm’s over four decades of law experience, we have protected our clients from manufacturers in a variety of product liability cases including:
- Manufacturing defects: When a particular batch of a product is not produced according to the appropriate standards it can result in catastrophic injuries, depending on the severity of the defect. The error in this type of defect can occur in assembly and only a small percentage of the company’s manufactured goods will have the error.
- Design defects: This flaw is found in the original design plan of the product and will result in an unreasonably dangerous product that can create a hazard for a potential user. This defect differs in that it occurs in all of a company’s manufactured products. In order to determine if a design defect has resulted the law requires an answer to each of the following questions:
- Was the product designed with unreasonably dangerous attributes?
- Was it reasonable to expect that the manufacturer could have anticipated the potential harm the product could cause?
- Were there safer design options available that were both economically feasible and capable of maintaining the general purpose of the product?
- Marketing defects: When a product is being sold to consumers, manufacturers have a duty to warn their potential customers of any dangers associated with the product and the intended use of the product. Any party along the chain of distribution can fail to provide proper warnings about a dangerous or defective product and cause an injury. Our team of defective product lawyers will investigate all parties in the distribution chain to determine the parties at fault for an injury.
- Warning labels: The American National Standard Institute (ANSI) developed a set of guidelines that product warning labels must provide to consumers. When a product warrants a warning, a manufacturer should display the warning in a very visible location, close to the product. These guidelines include:
- Letting the consumer know about any existing hazards
- Transparency regarding any risks involved with using a product
- Disclosure of the effects and consequences of any known hazard
- Demonstration on how to avoid the hazard
In a case where product liability is involved, multiple parties can hold fault, depending on the circumstances of the case. Depending on the specifics, the manufacturer, retailer or even the wholesaler could have liability for the product that caused the injury.
Types of Product Liability Cases
When looking at the liable party, there are different forms of liability of which the at-fault party’s action can result:
- Negligence: When our product liability attorneys determine that negligence of a party has occurred, they must prove to the court that the injury occurred as a result of deliberate or careless handling of the design or manufacture of a product. In addition to this carelessness, the plaintiff must demonstrate that the defendant had a duty to sell a safe product and knew or should have know that the product was defecting, resulting in a “breach of duty.”
- Breach of warranty: Some cases of product liability result from a seller’s failure to fulfill the terms of the product’s warranty. This failure can result from two kinds ofwarranties, express warranty or implied warranty. Any explicit statement or representation from the manufacturer about the safety of a product is an express warranty. While an implied warranty results from a promise from the manufacturer or any other liable part that under its normal, intended use the product will not be harmful to a consumer.
- Misrepresentation: When a product is featured as part of a sales promotion, the consumer may interpret the promotion as a sense of false security.
By promoting the product, the seller is staking their own reputation against the product, and the consumer will trust the seller’s intention in their promotion of the product and that the product will not be dangerous to the consumer.- Strict tort liability: In order to pursue a claim against a manufacturer or another party in the distribution chain, the claimant must prove that an injury occurred as a result of the defective product. If the claimant can show that the defect is found to exist and caused the injury, the law may hold the manufacturer strictly liable for damages. For the claim to have validity, the consumer must have purchased the product in the normal chain of distribution and cannot have acquired the product through an after-market or second-hand purchase.
If you think that you or someone you know has been injured due to a defective product or have a case that constitutes product liability, please reach out to our office. Our team of trial lawyers are ready to investigate and hear your claim about a defective product and resulting injury.
Work Cited:
American National Standards Institute. (n.d.). American National Standards Institute – ANSI HOME. ANSI. Retrieved September 23, 2021, from https://www.ansi.org/.
Insureon, a BIN Insurance Holdings Agency. (n.d.). What is a claimant in business insurance? Insureon. Retrieved September 23, 2021, from https://www.insureon.com/insurance-glossary/claimant.
Law Insider, Inc. . (n.d.). Economically feasible definition. Law Insider. Retrieved September 23, 2021, from https://www.lawinsider.com/dictionary/economically-feasible.
Wikimedia Foundation. (2021, June 25). Product liability. Wikipedia. Retrieved September 23, 2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Product_liability.