Chicago Product
Liability Lawyer

The majority of product liability cases are caused by manufacturing defects. In these cases, a product has been designed in a safe way, but some danger was introduced because of incompetent or negligent manufacturing.

For example, your child uses a bicycle with a perfectly safe design. However, the company that made the bicycle used a faulty part during the manufacturing process. The faulty part leads to your child having an injury caused by a bicycle accident. Although the use of the part was unintentional, the manufacturer is considered liable for your child’s pain and suffering.

Another common cause of dangerous products are design defects. In these cases, harm is due to faulty design or insufficient testing.

Let’s use a ladder as an example. A company designed a stylish ladder, but its sleek looks come at the expense of weight bearing. In a rush to get the product to market, the manufacturer did not adequately test the ladder. Because the ladder cannot support the advertised weight, you suffered an injury. Your injury was caused by a design defect.

At the end of the day, if there are risks of harm involved in using a product—harm that simply cannot be avoided—then the manufacturer or designer of the product is required to issue a clear warning.

These warnings can come in the form of labels printed directly on the product or box, as well as prominent warnings in the user manual. Warning labels should be easy to identify and clear enough for everyone to comprehend. If the manufacturer fails to make warnings clear, the distributor and retailer may be held responsible—in addition to the manufacturer—for a failure to warn.