Product Liability

Topics

Product Liability, The Main Types of Liability Claims

The State of the Art Defense in Product Liability Claims

When a person is hurt by a product, they often sue the manufacturer for compensation. The law holds companies responsible for putting safe products into the marketplace. But manufacturers do have a shield they can use in certain situations. That shie...

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Product Liability, The Main Types of Liability Claims

Design Defects: When a Product Is Dangerous by Its Very Nature

Product liability claims generally fall into three categories: manufacturing defects, design defects, and failure to warn. Among these, design defects are the most fundamental and often the most costly for manufacturers. A design defect means the pro...

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Product Liability, The Main Types of Liability Claims

The Duty to Warn: What Product Makers Must Tell You Before You Buy

When you buy a product, you assume it is safe to use as intended. The law backs that assumption, but it also places a responsibility on the manufacturer, distributor, and seller to warn you about dangers they know about or should know about. This is ...

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Product Liability, The Main Types of Liability Claims

Product Liability: Failure to Warn and Inadequate Instructions

When you buy a product, you assume it is safe to use as intended. But what happens when the product itself is not defective, yet the manufacturer failed to tell you about a hidden danger? That is the core of a failure-to-warn claim, one of the main t...

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Product Liability, The Main Types of Liability Claims

How Design Defects Create Liability for Manufacturers

When you buy a product, you expect it to work safely. You do not expect a ladder to collapse under normal weight, a car seat to fail in a crash, or a power tool to catch fire during routine use. When a product is dangerous because of a flaw in its ba...

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Product Liability, The Main Types of Liability Claims

Product Misuse: How It Affects Liability Claims

When someone gets hurt using a product, the first instinct is to blame the manufacturer. But the law does not automatically assume the company is at fault. One of the most common defenses in product liability cases is that the person who was injured ...

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Product Liability, The Main Types of Liability Claims

Failure to Warn: When Missing Instructions Lead to Liability

If a product hurts someone, the injury may not be caused by a broken part or a bad design. Sometimes the danger is obvious to the manufacturer but completely invisible to the person using the product. In those cases, the law looks at whether the comp...

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Product Liability, The Main Types of Liability Claims

Defective Design in Product Liability Cases

When you buy a product, you expect it to work safely. You assume the engineer who drew up the plans and the company that decided to build it did their homework. But sometimes the danger is baked right into the blueprint. That is a defective design. T...

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Product Liability, The Main Types of Liability Claims

The Legal Duty to Warn: When a Product’s Lack of Warning Becomes a Liability Claim

Product liability law does not only cover products that break, malfunction, or cause injury because of poor design or bad manufacturing. Another major category is failure to warn. This type of claim arises when a product is perfectly built and works ...

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Product Liability, The Main Types of Liability Claims

The Core of Product Liability: Understanding Defective Design

When you buy a product, you assume it works safely. A toaster should not catch fire. A ladder should not collapse. A car should not flip during normal turns. When a product causes injury because it was built wrong or designed poorly, the law gives yo...

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Product Liability, The Main Types of Liability Claims

Understanding Product Liability: When Products Cause Harm

Product liability is the legal responsibility of manufacturers and sellers when a defective product they put into the marketplace causes injury or damage to a consumer. It is a fundamental area of consumer protection law, operating on the principle t...

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Product Liability, The Main Types of Liability Claims

Strict Liability for Defective Products: What It Means for You

If you buy a product and it hurts you, the law does not always require you to prove that the manufacturer was careless. That is the core idea behind strict liability. It is a legal rule that holds a seller or manufacturer responsible for a defective ...

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FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Most dog bite claims are paid by the owner’s homeowners or renters insurance policy, which typically includes liability coverage. The insurance company will handle the claim, but their goal is to pay as little as possible. They may try to deny the claim if the dog’s breed is excluded by the policy or if the incident occurred outside the covered property. An attorney can negotiate with the insurer to seek a full and fair settlement that covers all your damages.

Yes, but only under specific conditions. You cannot sue for a simple accident. You must prove the hiring company’s negligence directly caused your injury—for example, by knowingly failing to fix a dangerous condition or violating safety regulations. The process is a formal personal injury lawsuit, not a workers’ compensation claim. Success depends on strong evidence of their fault, and any compensation may be reduced if your own actions contributed to the incident.

You should obtain a detailed, written estimate from a licensed, reputable contractor—not the insurance company or the at-fault party’s adjuster. An independent contractor works for you and has a duty to provide a complete scope of work based on current market rates. Their estimate reflects the true cost to fix the damage properly. Relying on the other side’s estimate often results in a lowball figure that excludes necessary repairs or uses subpar materials.

Common cases involve slip and falls on wet floors or uneven surfaces in stores, injuries from poor maintenance like broken handrails or stairs, swimming pool drownings or diving accidents due to lack of fencing or supervision, dog bites on the owner’s property, and injuries from falling objects in stores. Inadequate security leading to assaults in apartment complexes or parking lots is also a major category, as are injuries from snow and ice that was not cleared.