What Is a Defective Little Rock Product Defect Claim?

Manufacturers make good profits from the products they sell. That’s the point of their business. Consumers and users of these products have the right to expect that manufacturers will take all necessary steps to ensure that their product are fully tested, have quality parts, and are ready for the uses for which they were designed.

Arkansas has a product liability statute, which defines a product liability action as “All actions brought for or on account of personal injury, death, or property damage caused by or resulting from the manufacture, construction, design, formula, preparation, assembly, testing, service, warning, instruction, marketing, packaging, or labeling of any product.”

The law applies to manufacturers and sellers. Sellers generally include distributors, wholesalers, and retailers.

Types of product liability claims

Almost any type of product that can be purchased and used has the risk of being defective.

Common product liability claims include:

• Automobile defects. Typical defects include defective tires, airbags, fuel lines, seatbelt failures, crushed roofs during a rollover, sudden acceleration, and other car product defects.
• Baby and children’s products. This includes cribs, strollers, highchairs, and hoverboards.
• Medical devices. Examples include hernia meshes, DePuy ASR Hip Implant, and transvaginal meshes.
• Medications. When drugs are defective, the pharmacist and physician may also be liable.

Power tools, machinery, electronic appliances, household chemicals, and many other consumer items may also be defective.

Products may also be defective based on the failure of a manufacturer to comply with an FDA or other agency recall.

Requirements for proving a product liability claim

Product liability claims are different than typical personal injury and negligence claims. In product defect cases, the manufacturers and sellers are liable, without the need to prove fault, if:

• The product was defective, unreasonably dangerous, at the time it was made
• The defects caused an accident
• The accident, in turn, caused the victim’s injuries

The burden is essentially on the manufacturer and others in the supply chain to ensure that the product is safe for anyone who uses it.

Generally, products can be defective in the following ways:

• Defective design. This type of defect can be due to the initial blueprints, computer graphics tools, architecture, engineering, or any aspect of the design process.
• Defective manufacture. Manufacturing defects include using substandard or sub-quality parts. It includes missing materials, cheap materials, cutting corners, not following the design requirements, and other defects.
• Defective instructions and marketing. It’s not enough to make a quality part. The consumers and users should understand the instructions and shouldn’t be misled as to what the product can and can’t do. Anyone who uses a product should be warned about any known dangers.

Products may also be defective due to the way they are tested, serviced, wired, packaged, or labeled.

At Bailey & Greer, PLLC, our Little Rock product defect lawyers have obtained numerous multi-million dollar settlements and verdicts in various product liability cases. We work with product safety professionals to prove the product was defective. We work with your doctors to verify that the accident caused your injuries or the tragic death of a loved one. To schedule an appointment with one of our lawyers, call us at 501.213.1512 or use our contact form.