How Do Defective Products Lead to Serious Harm and Claims?

Defective products can cause a victim severe injuries, and these product liability accidents can result in large personal injury claims. If you’ve been harmed by a product, talk to an accident lawyer in McAllen, TX to find out all your options for holding those responsible accountable.

What Counts as a Defective Product?

Everyday items fail to work properly all the time. A car part fails, or a household tool breaks, or a medical device does not perform. These failures can cause broken bones, burns, internal injuries, or worse, and the question is how to know when these harms are true accidents or the fault of the user and when they signal a problem with the product itself.

The law recognizes three main ways that a product can be considered defective:

• Design defect
• Manufacturing defect
• Marketing defect

Design Defect

A design defect exists when the product is unsafe even though it was made exactly as planned. The entire product line shares the same problem, in other words. For example, if an entire line of baby bath seats has a tendency to flip over when water levels rise to a certain level, this is a design defect.

Manufacturing Defect

A manufacturing defect occurs when the design is fine, but something goes wrong during production. In these cases, usually only certain units contain the flaw. If 20,000 cars are made on an assembly line to the same specification, but 5,000 of them got airbags from a run of airbags containing a fault, only those 5,000 vehicles are a problem. This is a manufacturing defect.

Marketing Defect

A marketing defect is also sometimes called “failure to warn,” and it happens when the product either doesn’t have clear instructions or lacks a warning about risks that wouldn’t be obvious to the user.

How Defective Products Cause Product Liability Accidents 

Physical Mechanisms

Mechanical failure is a common cause of harm and often happens when a structural member breaks. The sudden release of stored force can accelerate a broken part and essentially turn it into a missile. In other cases, the structural failure causes an item to collapse, and someone leaning or standing on it in that moment falls. Torn ligaments, fractures and breaks, dislocations, and internal hemorrhages are often the result.

Thermal Burns

Overheating components or exposed heating elements that should be protected are another common cause of harm and product liability claims. The overheating itself can cause harm or flammable materials can be ignited.

Chemical and Electrical Burns

Sometimes burns are from chemicals. These can be contaminants that shouldn’t be there at all, or they can be leaks of known chemicals that were improperly sealed. Electrical currents can also cause serious injuries when a short or other issues ccauseelectricity to pass through a person.  

Talk to an Accident Lawyer in McAllen, TX

If you’ve been injured by a defective product and want to discover if you have a claim, reach out to the Almaraz Law Firm in McAllen, Midland, or San Antonio, TX today to start your free consultation.

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