If you were injured by a product and believe that a product safety alert would have prevented your injury, then you may be able to recover for your damages. Consumer products are required by law to be safe for consumers to use for normal or reasonable purposes. When products are not safe and cause injury, products liability law provides recourse for these kinds of damages.
If a manufacturer or supplier causes “death, physical injury to person, emotional distress, or physical damage to property” to a person, then that person can recover in a products liability lawsuit. Unlike a negligence lawsuit, the law does not require the manufacturer or product designer to be “negligent” or reckless in their behavior. This legal theory is called “strict liability.”
Most commonly, products liability lawsuits are based on the following problems that lead to injury:
1. Design Defect. A design defect occurs when a product is designed in a way that will cause harm to the user. To prevail on a products liability lawsuit based on a design defect, the injured victim may sometimes be required to show that there is an alternative design that is safer and both similar in cost and effectiveness. This is meant to prevent lawsuits over harm caused by products that have dangerous uses by nature, such as lawnmowers or kitchen knives.
2. Manufacturing Defect. In this scenario, a person seeking to recover damages in a products liability lawsuit is trying to prove that the manufacturer constructed the product incorrectly. Unlike the previous scenario where the design of the product was harmful, this lawsuit deals with an error in its production, which may only include a single product or an entire line of products. To win a products liability lawsuit based on a manufacturing defect, the defect must have existed when the product was purchased from the manufacturer or supplier.
3. Lack of Sufficient Warning. This type of products liability lawsuit deals with product safety alerts. Products that are sold in Ohio are required to warn users of any potential danger that may harm them while using the product, and sometimes include sufficient instructions about how to avoid the danger. Importantly, these dangers must be “non-obvious.” By non-obvious dangers, the Ohio law on product safety alerts means that you cannot bring a lawsuit for damages caused by a knife cut and claim that the manufacturer of the knife failed to warn you about the danger. If, however, a children’s toy from a local fast food restaurant contains pieces small enough for a child to choke on, then a manufacturer or supplier would be required to warn its users about that danger.
Contact a Products Safety Alert Lawyer Today
If a product caused you harm and you were not warned by the seller or manufacturer about a dangerous defect, then a products safety alert lawyer may be able to help you recover your damages in court.
There is a time limit for products liability cases, however, and it is one of the shortest in the country. In some instances, a person may only has two years from the date of their injury to bring a products liability lawsuit. With this limited amount of time, it could be important for you to contact a products safety alert lawyer today concerning your potential lawsuit.
