What Are Your Rights When an Accident is Caused by a Product Defect?

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), millions of motor vehicles are recalled every year because of product defects. While some of those problems are minor, others may pose serious risk of injury. What are your options when you have been hurt in an automobile accident caused by a dangerous or defective vehicle or part?

Product Liability and Motor Vehicle Accidents

There are a number of ways that you may recover compensation after a car accident involving a dangerous and defective vehicle or part. As a general rule, such personal injury claims are based on allegations of negligence. You must show that the party from whom you seek compensation had a duty to exercise reasonable care and failed to meet that standard, causing an accident that led you to suffer losses.

With a product liability claim, you can seek damages from anyone within the chain of distribution of a product, including the designer, manufacturer, distributor, wholesaler or retailer. The different legal theories that a product liability claim can be based on include:

• Negligent or careless design—This alleges that the designer failed to reasonably consider potential risk of injury. An example would be designing a motor vehicle with such a high center of gravity that it was unreasonably susceptible to rollovers.
• Negligent or defective manufacturing—This alleges that the manufacturer used substandard materials, careless assembled the product, or failed to properly oversee it’s construction, assembly or fabrication. An example would be tires made with substandard rubber.
• Negligent marketing—You may be able to recover damages if a party in the chain of distribution knew of a potential danger and failed to reasonably warn you or provide notice with the product.

Contact the Law Offices of David J. Karbasian, PC

Send us an e-mail today or call us at 856-667-4666 / 856-600-HURT to schedule an appointment. Evening and weekend consultations are available upon request. We can come to your home or the hospital to meet with you, if necessary.