Pennsylvania Product Liability
The products you buy and use in Pennsylvania should be reliable and safe. Many times people are injured because a product manufacturer fails to warn an individual regarding the proper use of a product, as well as any hazards the product could cause as a result of normal use.
Suffering a personal injury or an economic loss because of a defective product may entitle you to receive compensation. In Pennsylvania the claims most commonly associated with product liability are negligence, strict products liability, and breach of warranty.
Each product liability claim requires different elements to be proven to present a successful Pennsylvania product liability lawsuit. It is important to note that a product liability case in the state of Pennsylvania must be brought within two years after the plaintiff suffers the injury.
Product Liability and Negligence
A Pennsylvania negligence claim consists of:
- Proof of a duty by manufacturer
- A breach of that duty
- The breach caused the plaintiff's injury
- A personal injury occurred
A Pennsylvania product liability negligence claim usually falls into one of three possible types:
- Manufacturing defect
- Design defect
- Failure to warn
The difficulties of an injured consumer to prove what a manufacturer did or did not do during the design or manufacture of product has lead to the development of newer product liability claims such as strict liability.
Product Liability and Strict Liability
Rather than concentrate on the manufacturer, strict liability claims focus on the product itself. The basic component of a strict liability claim is proof that the product is defective or dangerous. Similar to negligence claims, strict liability claims look at a product's warnings, design, and manufacture. Every state has employed numerous ways to determine a product's defectiveness. Most of the tests used to determine defectiveness include these questions:
- Did it meet the consumer's expectations?
- Is there a safer design alternative?
- Did the manufacturer balance the products' risk vs. its utility
- Were the dangers obvious to the consumer?
Product Liability and Breach of Warranty
Warranties are statements by a manufacturer and/or seller concerning a product during a commercial transaction. Pennsylvania breach of warranty claims focus on how the manufacturer's conduct or the product itself relate to a commercial transaction.
Warranty claims commonly require:
- Express warranty
- Breach of an implied warranty of merchantability
- Breach of an implied warranty of fitness for a particular purpose
Please fill out the form on your left for a free case review by a Pennsylvania product liability lawyer.
