San Francisco Product Liability Attorney Dangerous Products Cause Injury Law Firm Bay Area

San Francisco Injury Lawyers > Dangerous Products

Millions of Americans are injured or killed each year due to dangerous products. Unlike other types of cases such as automobile accidents, where it must be proved that the wrongdoer did not use sufficient care to prevent injuries to or deaths of other persons (that is, was "negligent"), a manufacturer of a product is "strictly liable" for injuries caused by the defective design or fabrication of its product which makes the produce unsafe for its intended and anticipated ("foreseeable") uses. This means that the victim is not required to prove that the manufacturer, distributor, wholesaler, retailer, or anyone else involved in the "stream of commerce" did a particular act of carelessness that resulted in the product's being dangerousness.

A person or entity involved in the manufacturing, distributing, wholesaling, or retailing a product is "strictly liable" where (1) the person or company places the product on the market (2) knowing that it is to be used without inspection for defects, (3) the product proves to have a defect that makes it dangerous, and (4) the defect causes injury to a human being. The reason that a lesser standard of fault is used in cases involving defective products is to insure that the costs of injuries resulting from defective products are borne by the manufacturer that puts dangerous products on the market rather than by the injured victims who are usually powerless to protect themselves. The manufacturer is in a better position than the product consumer or user to absorb the cost of injuries caused by a defective product, and can spread the expenses for consumer injuries or deaths among the public as a cost of doing business.

A product may be defective for one or more of the following reasons:

The product has been designed defectively, making the product inherently dangerous to all who use it or injured by it (each and every item of the same product is dangerous); mass production of an improperly-designed product can mean mass injuries and deaths;
A defect in the manufacture of the particular product that makes it unsafe - such as a faulty weld, loose or missing screws, nuts and bolts, using inferior raw materials - that are needed to make the product safe;
The failure to provide adequate instructions on how to assemble or use the product correctly and safely; or
The failure to provide sufficient warnings regarding the product's dangers.

If you have been injured or a loved one killed by a possibly defective product, you should promptly consult an experienced personal injury law firm. The defective product should not be used again and should not be altered in any way but kept in the same condition as it was when it injured or killed the victim. All instructions, warnings, and other packaging materials (such as the box the product came in, if any) should not be thrown out, but rather given to the attorney so he or she can evaluate the sufficiency of assembly instructions, danger warnings, and other important information. The attorney will often need to have the product and/or assembly instructions or warnings evaluated by a professional such as an engineer or human factors expert to see whether the product posed a risk of harm.

San Francisco Injury Lawyers > Dangerous Products