If you have been injured while using a defective product, and, as a result, you suffered measurable losses, then you might have given thought to filing a defective product liability claim. Learn here what you would have to prove, in order to win such a claim with the help of a personal injury lawyer in New Lenox.
Did you actually suffer an injury, or were you almost injured?
Sometimes, a consumer that has purchased a certain item learns, while using it, that the same item has a decided flaw. Often, that flaw causes the purchased item to behave in a dangerous fashion, perhaps a frightening fashion.
The frightened user then views his or her startling experience as something that could have led to an injury. As a result, the same startled person tries to hold the item’s maker liable for the frightening occurrence. Eventually, the same upset consumer discovers that the absence of any real injuries prevents the filing of a product liability lawsuit.
If you did get injured, while struggling with a defective product, did the defect’s presence cause your injury?
Be sure that you appreciate all the ways that a purchased item might have some type of defect. Sometimes, an unsafe feature gets added during the design process. The addition of small parts to a toy would belong on a list of errors made by designers.
At other times, a mistake is made by one of the workers in the manufacturing plant. That worker might forget to add a certain part, or might insert a part in the improper fashion. Finally, a defect’s existence might have resulted from an error made by a marketer. A marketed product should carry a warning about any known feature that might endanger the user. Marketers are supposed to arrange for placement of a needed warning on a given product’s label.
Did you use the thing that you had purchased in the way that it was supposed to be used?
If you threw out the instructions, and proceeded to assemble the product’s parts on your own, you would no basis for a product liability claim. In that case, no mistake would have been made by a designer, by a worker in the manufacturing plant, or by someone in the marketing department.
Instead, you had made a mistake. You had failed to pay attention to the instructions that had been included in the box that held whatever you had chosen to buy. Consequently, you would have no reason for claiming that the boxed item’s maker had sought to market to consumers an item that contained a flaw. As shown by the situations described above, it is not easy to prove a defective product liability claim. Many consumers have tried, and have failed in their attempt.