When you’re injured and it’s not your fault, you just want the responsible party to step up and pay for the injuries you’ve suffered. Sometimes that’s cut and dried; other times, not so much. For example, who do you hold responsible when an electronic device catches aflame or an appliance breaks and causes you harm?
Defective product cases can be tricky and depend on a number of factors. Learn why product liability claims can be complex, the different types of claim there are, and why having an Oklahoma City personal injury lawyer is important.
Types of Product Liability
Before you can determine how to pursue a product liability claim, you need to know what sort of defective product case you have. There are generally three types of these cases: defective manufacturing cases, cases of defective product design, and cases where improper instructions or inadequate warnings caused the injury.
Defective Manufacturing
When a line of products is generally sound, but one or two products in the line malfunction in a way that is catastrophic enough to cause an injury, this is a case of a manufacturing defect. For example, if you have a dining room set which is solidly constructed, but one of the chairs has a loose joint, causing it to collapse and injure you, the defect was in that chair’s manufacturing, not in the entire line.
Defective Product Design
Product design defects occur when there’s a core danger inherent in an entire line of products. The most recognizable form of design defect these days is among electronics. Some lines of electronics may have design defects which cause them to overheat and catch on fire. When this happens, there’s a core design flaw that is responsible for the injury.
Warning and Instruction Defects
What if you’re using a product and something unforeseen occurs, but could’ve been avoided if you’d had the proper warning? For example, let’s say you’re using a folding knife or multi tool. You assume that the blades lock because there’s no warning or instruction saying otherwise. When there’s no such locking functionality and the blade suddenly folds in and cuts you, this would be a problem of failure to warn users of this danger.
Oklahoma City Personal Injury Lawyer
When you’re dealing with design defaults, manufacturing issues or failure to warn issues, the steps you need to take to prove liability and negligence can differ based on the type of defective product case you need to pursue. The best bet to handle this is to call upon the services of a qualified Oklahoma City personal injury lawyer.
Not only will an attorney know how to gather the right evidence to pursue your case, they know how to fight back when insurance companies try to turn the claim around and blame you, or use other tactics to avoid payment. If you find yourself in this situation and need help, the injury lawyers at the Parrish DeVaughn Law Firm are here to help. Read about our firm, and get in touch for a free discussion about your case today!
