Every single day, people use a wide variety of products, often without even thinking about it. From medications and appliances to cars and airplanes, much of modern life revolves around the things that we use.

Because we use products for just about every aspect of our daily lives, we rely on them to be designed for safe use and to work properly. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Defective products are not uncommon. Using a defective product can lead to serious injury or even death.

Award-winning Los Angeles personal injury lawyer Robert Mansell has fought for over 25 years to protect the rights of injured consumers.

There is a long history of products being placed on the market that, for one reason or another, can injure consumers. Sometimes a defective product is a mere manufacturing oversight. Other times these defective products are placed on the market with inadequate product testing by companies more concerned about turning a quick profit than with the public's safety. Sometimes companies may go one step further: purposely allowing defective products to be sold in anticipation that profits will be higher than any payouts over products liability lawsuits.

Elements of a Products Liability Case

Below are some basic elements that a plaintiff must prove in order to win a products defect case:

• Defendant made or sold the product in question.
• There was a defect in the manufacture or design of the product when it left defendant's possession.
• The product was used (or misused) in a reasonably foreseeable manner.
• The defect was the substantial cause of damage to plaintiff.
• The plaintiff must prove those damages.

1. Defendant made or sold the product in question. To establish liability for a defective product, it must be shown that the defendant had some hand in creating or selling the defective product.

2. There was a defect in the manufacture or design of the product when it left defendant's possession. The plaintiff must also show that there was in fact something wrong with the product that caused the injury. Specific examples of product defects include:

a. Defective Manufacture

This means that a particular product did not meet the company's manufacturing requirements and was not made as designed. It is usually different somehow from other units of the same design. A manufacturer and/or retailer can be liable for injuries caused by defective products.

b. Defective Design

Defective design differs from defective manufacture. A defective design means that even if the products are manufactured properly and as-planned, that there is something inherently wrong with their design that makes the whole product line dangerous. This can manifest in the following ways:

• (1) The injured party demonstrates that the product in question failed to perform as safely as an ordinary consumer would expect it to perform when used properly.
• (2) Even if a product performs as the consumer expects it, juries can still find that a design is defective if, looking at how the product was actually used, it's clear that the risk of danger because of the design itself is greater than the benefits of such a design.

The injured party must also prove that the product was defective at the time he bought it from the seller, or if the product was modified after purchase, that such modification was reasonably foreseeable.

3. The product was used (or misused) in a reasonably foreseeable manner. Product liability plaintiffs must show that their use of the product was reasonably foreseeable. Even if a person uses a product incorrectly or in a manner it was not intended to be used, they can still win a defective product case if they can show that the misuse was still reasonably foreseeable. This means that the manufacturer could have reasonably anticipated that someone may have misused the product in a way that would cause injury.

4. The defect was the substantial cause of damage to plaintiff. The defect in the product must have been a substantial factor in the damages suffered by the plaintiff. This is a complex legal standard that an experienced products liability lawyer can help a client navigate.

5. Plaintiff must prove damages. In a product defect case, a plaintiff must show that they suffered specific types of harm.

Proving that a product is defective can be a monumental task. A person injured by a defective product faces an uphill battle, fighting a large company with a team of product liability attorneys whose job it is to limit that company's legal exposure.

This is why it's vital for an injured party to fight fire with fire, with his or her own experienced defective products lawyer. Industry experience, legal acumen, and an aggressive litigation strategy set defective product attorney Robert Mansell apart.

For a free consultation about your product defect injury, please contact Mansell and Mansell APC through our online form. Or call now to speak directly with Robert Mansell at (323)800-0000, any time, 24/7.

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