In a typical personal injury case, a victim is required to prove another party’s gross negligence led to their injuries. However, if you are pursuing a product liability case, this is not required. Instead, you only need evidence showing you are injured, and that the product is defective, a process known as strict liability. Once you have done this, you and your Miami FL product liability attorneys have met your burden of proof, and now it is up to the defense to prove otherwise.
Types of Strict Liability
Generally, there are three types of product liability cases:
–Design Defects
–Manufacturing Defects
–Marketing Defects
The most common of these is design defect, meaning a design flaw was built into the product when first manufactured. In manufacturing defects, these can occur even when the product’s design was not flawed. As an example, if your attorneys at Buchalter Hoffman & Dorchak could prove screws were left out of a product and you were injured as a result, your case would center on this aspect. With a marketing defect, your case would focus on the manufacturer failing to provide adequate warnings or clear instructions regarding the product’s use.
Defenses to Strict Product Liability
If you bring a product liability case against a manufacturer, it will have several defenses at its disposal, such as:
–Product design and manufacturing were flawless
–Victim misused the product
–Victim knew dangers associated with product but used it anyway
–Victim failed to follow stated warnings or instructions
If any of these are proven, the burden of proof will then shift back to you and your Miami FL product liability attorneys, who will then need to disprove the manufacturer’s claims.
Instead of trying to handle these complex cases on your own, contact the experts at Buchalter Hoffman & Dorchak today to discuss what will be involved in your product liability case.