An injured consumer does not automatically win compensation for any injuries that were caused by defective product. The defendant’s lawyer has the opportunity to present a defense.
The 3 types of product liability claims
• A claim of negligence on the part of the designer, manufacturer, seller or distributor
• A claim that the company selling the product had breached the same product’s warranty
• A claim of strict liability
Possible defenses
The product did not cause the injury; something else did. In this case the circumstances that did cause the injury had to be both unpredictable and unpreventable.
The plaintiff was negligent. If this can be proven, then the amount of money that the defendant must pay for damages gets reduced. The extent of that reduction reflects the percent of the plaintiff’s actions, as opposed to the defendant’s, that appear to have contributed to the accident’s occurrence.
The plaintiff had assumed a known risk. That would be the case if the owner of a car were to receive a letter about a defective part, but failed to take the car to the dealers. Instead, the same car remained on the road, and eventually caused an accident.
The statute of limitations had expired. Each state makes clear the amount of time that the victim of a personal injury has for filing a lawsuit, in order to avoid missing the stated deadline. That period of time is known as the statute of limitations. A victim that has exceeded that deadline has sought to file a personal injury lawsuit after the statute of limitations has expired.
The plaintiff did not give proper notice to the defendant. The company selling a product has the right to request prior notice, if an injured consumer intends to file a personal injury lawsuit. Any company that had exercised such a right could have an added defense, if a consumer got injured, while using that same company’s product.
The plaintiff had disclaimed the product’s warranty: The plaintiff, formerly the buyer of the injury-causing product had disclaimed the warranty, when purchasing that warranted item. Sometimes, the buyer of a particular item has the chance to pay more money, in order to secure a warranty. Such offers alert a particular buyer to the existence of a warranty. If the same buyer decides against securing the offered piece of assurance, then that decisive action qualifies as a disclaimer.
If a consumer has disclaimed a product’s warranty, then the consumer’s right to sue for a product liability disappears. Hence, a Personal Injury Lawyer in Halifax for the product’s maker would be able to establish the basis for a valid defense, one that was based on the disclaiming of the warranty.
