Defective Products and Personal Injuries: What You Need to Know

Defective products are put on the market all the time.  Sometimes this happens by accident.  Sometimes—more often than most people can imagine—it even happens on purpose. 

When defective products are put in the hands of consumers, safety and lives are put at risk.  Companies that make big profits by selling unsafe goods cannot be allowed to put their bottom line above the safety of consumers and innocent bystanders.

The product liability law firm of Lowe Scott Fisher Co., LPA has represented consumers against greedy and irresponsible businesses for over three decades.  By fighting for those injured by unreasonably dangerous and defective vehicles, products, and components, Lowe Eklund has helped make negligent corporations pay for their careless and unsafe business practices.

What Is a Defective Product?

To the average person, a defective product might be considered simply a product that doesn’t work correctly.  In Ohio, however, what constitutes a defective product is actually determined by law.  There are several ways in which a product may be considered defective under current product liability law.

A product may be defective in manufacture.  This type of defect is closest to the layperson’s definition of defect.  If a product is intended to be made or assembled in a certain way, but it is improperly made or assembled in a way that is not according to plan, then it is defective in manufacture.

Conversely, a product may be defective in design.  This type of defect occurs when the product is made or assembled in the way that was intended, but the product—even as intended—is unreasonably dangerous.

Products may also be defective in a legal sense if they lack adequate warning about the risks inherent in using the product, or if the product does not conform to specific warranties made about the product itself.

What Types of Products Can Be Defective?

Any product can be defective, from the million-dollar automobile to a two-cent drinking straw.  Products liability cases, though, typically deal with certain classes of products because they are more likely to cause personal injuries when defective.

Vehicles of all types can cause serious or fatal injuries when they are defective.  This includes cars, trucks, motorcycles, bicycles, mopeds, snowmobiles, ATVs, boats, and just about any other type of vehicle that individuals drive or ride.  These products contain numerous mechanical and safety components that, if not designed and manufactured to appropriate standards, may cause serious injuries.

Appliances and tools are also frequently at issue in product liability cases.  Insufficient warnings on dangerous tools, shoddy wiring of indoor appliances, and many other dangers relating to design and manufacture can cause fires, lacerations, and other life-threatening injuries.

Industrial machinery similarly can cause unnecessary injuries, often from flawed or careless design.  Workers suffer on-the-job injuries every day because the equipment they use is made by companies that care more about cutting costs than protecting lives.

When Should I Call a Product Liability Lawyer?

Product defect injury cases can be difficult to analyze.  In many instances, injured individuals do not pursue compensation because they are not even aware that a product defect caused their injuries.  This is why it is crucial for injured individuals to contact an experienced lawyer if a product may have caused their injuries.

Call Lowe Scott Fisher Co., LPA now for a free consultation about your potential product liability claims.