The 3 Civil Torts Used in Defective Product Cases

Under various consumer rights and defective product accident injury laws, you are given avenues to pursue the manufacturers, or even the sellers, for the damages you sustained due to their product.

Manufacturers are expected to produce consumer products that are reasonably safe as long as they are used in a way that is intended to.

If you get injured due to a safety defect while using the product as intended, then the manufacturers have failed in their duty.

To prove product liability, you can use any of these three torts in the case:
Negligence

In this tort, you have to prove that the manufacturer committed a negligent act while producing a product.

To prove negligence, you have to prove the following elements:

• Duty of care – The manufacturer has a duty to produce a product that is tested to be safe for consumers.

• Duty of care broken – The owner failed in their duty as they were not able to prevent the error that caused the safety defect.

• The safety defect caused your injuries.

• You sustained damages.

Strict Liability

California is one of the US states that uses the strict liability clause for product liability as it recognizes that it is unreasonable to expect an ordinary citizen to be able to get the necessary information to prove that manufacturers were negligent.

So instead of focusing on the negligent act, the focus is shifted to proving the existence of the safety defect.

To prove strict liability, you have to prove the following elements:


• The product has a safety defect that makes it dangerous even for intended use
• You sustained injuries due to the safety defect while using product as intended
• You sustained damages.

Breach of Warranty

Breach of warranty in product liability cases can be described as a combination of tort law and contract law since it deals with personal injuries and the implied good fait and fair dealings required from the manufacturers and sellers.
The four types of warranties that apply in product liability laws are:

• Express warranty – can be oral or written, this refers to the guarantee of the manufacturer or seller about the safety of their product

• Implied warranty – these are warranties that are imposed by law on the product.

• Implied warranty of merchantability – this is a warranty that the product and its container is in compliance with the standards set by the law.

• Implied warranty of fitness – this refers to the guarantees that apply to situations where the consumer trusts the judgment of the seller in selecting their goods. It guarantees that the selected product is fit for the purpose asked by the consumer.

To know more about product liability law, consult a defective product accident injury attorney for more information.