Product Liability: Failure to Warn

Alabama Personal Injury Lawyer, Serving Dothan and Surrounding Areas

Product liability is a branch of law which requires manufacturers of products to fully disclose any effects or harm a product may cause personal injury to the consumer. An example of this is pharmaceutical medications which have a long list of warnings of dangerous side effects. Even with warnings in place, other side effects can be discovered later, and lawsuits are filed daily by consumers who were harmed by dangerous drugs. When we purchase an item, we naturally expect it to perform as stated, when directions are followed, and warnings heeded.

Each day, many consumers purchase products believing they are safe, only to have the product cause a serious accident, illness, condition or death. All manufacturers are required to state the intended use of a product, and to warn of dangers in the use of the product. If a manufacturer sells a product that proves to be dangerous, and did not warn consumers, the manufacturer can be held liable under product liability law.

Types of Product Liability

The three types of product liability cases are related to manufacturing defects, design flaws, and a failure to warn. Manufacturing defects occur when the quality of workmanship has led to a faulty or defective product. An example of this might be air bag manufacturing defects, which prevent the unit from functioning correctly and lead to injuries that could have been prevented had the airbag deployed. Design flaws are cases in which the actual design of the product or components created a product that was dangerous to consumers. In cases of a failure to warn, a product has been put on the market that had inherent dangers and consumers were not warned of these dangers. A failure to warn can lead to various types of injuries, some of which are very serious, permanent or fatal.

Compensation for a Failure to Warn

For a product liability case to be successful, your Alabama product liability attorney must fully illustrate that the failure to warn was a direct cause of damage or injury. This may be obvious as in the case of a pharmaceutical – however the corporations that make them have extensive resources and can aggressively defend against any claim related to product liability. At Morris, Andrews, Talmadge & Driggers, LLC, we have a great insight into how manufacturers defend against claims – we used to work for insurance companies.