St. Louis Product Liability Lawyer

Product liability refers to an area of law that holds designers, manufacturers, and sellers of dangerous goods responsible for any harm linked to their goods. Product liability claims generally hinge on the consumer good in question being dangerously defective in some way. The product must also have caused harm when it was used as intended or in a reasonable manner. Our attorneys are knowledgeable about product liability laws in St. Louis, and we can review your case to see if you have valid grounds for compensation.

Three Primary Types of Defects

When it comes to product liability claims, there are three primary types of defects that you should know.

Defective Design

Sometimes, a product’s design is dangerously defective to begin with. This means that the manufacturer put too little effort into the design before proceeding to manufacture and distribution.

Common examples of defective designs include:

• Power tools that lack the required safety guards
• Medications with risks that exceed their benefits
• SUVs that are more likely to rollover due to their design
• Cribs with bars that are too widely spaced and can trap an infant as a result

Ultimately, some products should never have been produced, but manufacturers who are more focused on sales than safety proceed anyway.

Manufacturing Defect

Some consumer goods are based on solid designs but are rendered dangerously defective during the manufacturing process. A prime example of this is a single batch of a specific drug that is contaminated with a toxic material during the manufacturing process. Car parts that are put together incorrectly or that include a faulty piece also fit the bill.

Common manufacturing defects include the following:

• Products that were assembled incorrectly
• Sterile products that were contaminated during manufacturing
• Products that were tainted with toxic substances during manufacturing
• Products that were made with lower-quality materials than the design specified
• Products containing dangerously faulty electronics that do not meet the design specs

We work to hold manufacturers accountable and help clients recover compensation for their injuries, medical bills, and other losses.

Lack of Necessary Instructions or Missed Warnings

Some consumer goods are inherently dangerous, but we use them because of the immense convenience they provide. For example, while you would not allow a small child to use a power tool, you may use it yourself. This is because you follow the instructions carefully and heed the applicable warnings.

A problem arises when inherently dangerous products lack the necessary instructions or the required warnings. If you do not know how to safely use a product that could cause you harm, you are far more likely to be hurt in the process.

This category of defect often manifests in one of the following ways:

• The manufacturer fails to adequately indicate the scope of the related danger
• The manufacturer fails to provide the instructions necessary to operate the product in question safely
• The manufacturer fails to alert consumers to the associated risks that may not be immediately obvious
• The manufacturer hides important warnings in tiny fine print or somewhere not obvious to the consumer

Some product liability cases may involve multiple types of defects. The experienced product liability attorneys at Zevan Murphy in St. Louis can help you identify each one.