Products Liability & Personal Injury: What are Your Rights?
- August 1, 2010
- James R. Green
Products break. Products fail. And some products prove dangerous by design.
Some defective products just don’t work, and we return them or throw them away.
But some defective products cause personal injury – or even death. When a defect in a product causes personal injury it falls under the umbrella of products liability.
Injuries caused by negligence could result in a claim for damages. The standard jury instructions approved by the Supreme Court of Florida define negligence as follows:
“Negligence is the failure to use reasonable care. Reasonable care is that degree of care which a reasonably careful person would use under like circumstances.”
Motor vehicle accidents, medical malpractice, construction accidents, unsafe premises, dog attacks, slip-and-fall accidents, and defective products can qualify under this definition.
A product is considered unreasonably dangerous if the product fails to perform as safely as an ordinary consumer would expect when used as intended or in a manner reasonably foreseeable by the manufacturer or the risk of danger in the design outweighs the benefits.
One resource used in determining the safety of a product is ASTM International, one of the largest voluntary standards development organizations in the world. They are a trusted source for technical standards for materials, products, systems and services. While these standards are not mandated, government regulators often give the standards the force of law by citing them in laws, regulations and codes.
Another resource is The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. This organization works to protect the public from unreasonable risks of serious injury or death and to ensure the safety of consumer products – such as toys, cribs, power tools, cigarette lighters, and household chemicals – that can pose a danger to consumers.
Injuries caused by negligence can result in lost income and unexpected medical bills. And nothing is more tragic than the unnecessary loss of a life, especially due to someone else’s negligence.
If you have been injured, or have lost a loved one due to the negligence of another, the team at Green & Green can answer your questions and explain your rights to you. Let us help you deal with the legal issues and get your life back in order.