When you are injured using a product, the first question to ask is whether you were using it as intended. If so, you may have a product liability lawsuit. If the injury was because of improper manufacture or design or a failure to warn you of potential dangers, then the manufacturers, distributors, and sellers may owe you compensation.
A Nashville defective products lawyer at Ponce Law can help you seek comprehensive damages after being hurt by an unsafe product. Doing so has two purposes. First, compensation from a personal injury lawsuit can cover your medical expenses as well as other economic and non-economic damages. Second, these lawsuits hold companies accountable, encouraging them to remedy product defects and avoid future consumer injuries. Let our dedicated legal professionals help you pursue justice.
Tennessee Code § 29-28-105 governs Nashville’s approach to defective products. Generally, manufacturers are not responsible for injuries to people caused by a product. That is true whether the product is inherently dangerous or one that is unlikely to cause injuries since accidents are always possible. Instead, for the manufacturer or seller to be liable, the product must either be unreasonably dangerous or in a defective condition at the time it left the manufacturer or seller.
Furthermore, the law does not hold the manufacturer or seller responsible for advances in technology or science. If research after the product was placed on the market reveals that it is defective or unreasonably dangerous, they may not be liable. Instead, the court will look at the knowledge that the manufacturer or seller had or should have had at the time the item was marketed.
The manufacturer is not allowed to ignore continuing evidence that a product is dangerous or defective. The date the product was placed on the market refers to the specific product in the trial, not the first sale date of any of the same items. Manufacturers are responsible for eliminating or remedying defects before selling more of an unreasonably dangerous or defective product.
A diligent lawyer in Nashville who handles defective product cases could investigate the available industry knowledge to determine whether the manufacturer should have known of a potential defect.
One of the theories of product liability is failure to warn. The warning labels on products are designed to let people know of hazards that may not be apparent. However, failure to warn includes a measure of common sense. The law specifically provides that a product is not unreasonably dangerous because of failure to warn if the danger or hazard was apparent to an ordinary user.
That said, the danger has to be conspicuous. Compare hair dryers and toasters. People routinely use hair dryers in the bathroom to dry hair after a bath or shower, so a person might assume that they are safe to use while in the bathtub, even though they are not. In contrast, people do not routinely use toasters in their bathrooms, so putting a toaster in a bathtub is not a mistake a reasonable person could make. A Nashville defective products attorney could examine a potential claim and help determine whether the hazard should have been apparent.
When a product’s design is defective, the design itself has a dangerous flaw. When the design is flawed, even if properly manufactured and used, it can cause injuries to people. When a design defect is hazardous, the manufacturer should recall them to protect consumers.
Improper manufacture means that the product’s design was appropriate, and if it had been manufactured as designed, it would have been safe to use. Instead, a manufacturing defect made it dangerous. Examples of manufacturing defects could be weak materials or stress points, which can lead to the product breaking.
A proactive product liability lawyer in Nashville might look for evidence of similar injuries to determine whether an improper design or manufacturer led to a specific accident.
When you are injured by a faulty product, the manufacturer or seller may be liable for your injuries. You could be entitled to economic and non-economic damages, as well as punitive damages. The damage award will depend on the circumstances of the injury, the nature of the defect, industry standards, and the manufacturer’s actual knowledge. Consult a Nashville defective products lawyer at Ponce Law to discuss your legal rights and options.
