When we buy products, we expect them to be safe, whether they are products we use at home or in our place of employment. Manufacturers have a legal responsibility to manufacture products with safety as the utmost consideration. Unfortunately, this doesn’t always happen, and unsuspecting users are sometimes injured because the product wasn’t manufactured properly. Manufacturing defects, along with design defects and marketing defects, fall under what is called product liability law. This article explains what a manufacturing defect is for Oklahoma product liability law.
What is a manufacturing defect?
A product contains a manufacturing defect if it differs from the manufacturers design or specifications. This means that the product is manufactured differently than the manufacturer intended. For instance, if substandard materials were used in its manufacturing, the product was not assembled according to the design specifications or there was inadequate quality control during the manufacturing process.
Some examples include industrial machine failure due to bad welding, ruptured tires due to imperfections in the rubber compound or exploding boats from faulty gas lines. In fact, any defective product that causes bodily harm may be the subject of a product liability case, including lawn mowers, blow dryers, kitchen appliances, power tools and automobiles, among others.
The liability for damage caused while using a product with a manufacturing defect usually lies with the manufacturer for failing to insure that the product was safe for usage. Like with other kinds of product liability cases, the product or piece of machinery in question is on trial in a manufacturing defect case.
What should I do if I’ve been injured by a manufacturing defect?
It is vitally important that you preserve the evidence by taking possession of the product (it if possible), or taking photographs or videotape of the product as soon as possible after you’ve been injured due to a manufacturing defect. Don’t alter the product, don’t fix it, don’t destroy it or let it out of your site, if at all possible.
Often, when a product with a manufacturing defect causes you an injury, you will not know what exactly went wrong. In these cases, if the injury or damage is severe enough, your lawyer may choose to hire an accident reconstruction engineer to examine the product and figure out what went wrong. These independent experts will then offer an unbiased opinion of where the manufacturing defect lies in the product.
It is also important to know if others have been injured while using the product. A manufacturing defect usually occurs in more than one unit, so it is advantageous to find similar injuries under similar circumstance in order to build a solid case against the manufacturer for damage caused using its defective product.
Low-cost Consultation: Oklahoma City Personal Injury Attorney
If a product with a manufacturing defect has injured you, it is extremely important that you contact an Oklahoma City personal injury lawyer with experience in handling the kind of case that you are facing.
For a initial, no-risk consultation with a knowledgeable Oklahoma City personal injury attorney, call today: (405) 716-4878 (716-HURT).
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