Product Liability

This is FindLaw’s collection of Product Liability articles, part of the Litigation and Disputes section of the Corporate Counsel Center. Product liability laws are based on the the premise that companies generally have a duty to protect consumers from potential hazards. Courts have held that manufacturers generally have more insight and knowledge about their products, so it falls to them to assume financial responsibility for any injuries or damage they cause. Law articles in this archive are predominantly written by lawyers for a professional audience seeking business solutions to legal issues. Start your free research with FindLaw.

Civil Litigation

Product Liability Articles

Using Substantial Factor Analysis in Closed Head Injury Cases

Nearly ten million closed head injuries occur in the United States each year, and ninety percent of these involve mild to moderate injury. See Long, "Postconcussion Symptoms After Head Trauma," 79 So. Med. J. 728-732 (1986). Medical research has ...
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Regulatory Preemption of Medical Devices

Federal regulatory preemption of medical devices has its genesis in the 1976 Medical Device Amendments (MDA)1 to the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act of 1938 (FDCA). 2 Under the FDCA, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was given jurisdiction over ...
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The Preclusive Effect of the Connecticut Product Liability Act on Connecticut Unfair Trade Practice Act Claims

Connecticut created a unitary form of product liability action by statute in 1979. A central principle of Connecticut's Products Liability Act ("PLA")1 is that "A products liability claim . . . shall be in lieu of all other claims against product ...
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The de facto Merger Doctrine Comes to Massachusetts Wherein the Exception to the Rule Becomes the Rule

In early 1997, the Supreme Judicial Court for the first time found a corporation liable for the obligations of another corporation on the grounds that there had been a de facto merger of the two corporations. While Massachusetts is by no means alone ...
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The Expanding Indemnity Rights of Non-Manufacturing Product Sellers and the Problem of the “Mixed” Case

A person injured in a bicycle accident sues both the small bicycle manufacturer and Wal-Mart, where the bicycle was purchased. Plaintiff contends that the bicycle was defectively designed and that both defendants are responsible under strict ...
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Releases and Product Liability Claims

Release and assumption of risk agreements are now commonplace in the recreational community. Insurance companies require them and most of the jurisdictions enforce them. But consider the following scenario: You receive notice of a lawsuit brought by ...
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Product Liability: Preventing Deaths From Tire Explosions Caused By Known Design Defects

It is a strong but true statement that tires are designed to explode when being installed on wheels and for that reason, every tire explosion that occurs during the installation process, whether a passenger or light truck tire, is predictable and ...
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Pretrial Determinations Of Product Safety: Is The Tide Turning?

For years, Pennsylvania product liability law has required a trial court to make an initial determination of whether the design defects alleged, if proven, could be deemed to have rendered the product "unreasonably dangerous" to intended users ...
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Highlights of the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996

The new law establishes a strong, health-based safety standard for pesticide residues in all foods. It uses "a reasonable certainty of no harm" as the general safety standard, the same approach used in the Administration's 1994 bill. The new law ...
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U.S. Import Requirements

This pamphlet is intended as a general explanation of import requirements for a person interested in establishing an importing business or a person who may be importing a personal shipment whose value is in excess of $2,000. We at Customs want to ...
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