Faulty Product Injury Claims

All manufacturers and distributors must ensure that products meet certain safety criteria.

Any failure to comply with legal obligations pertaining to product liability can result in severe penalties. In particular, company directors and business proprietors can be fined, sued or even imprisoned for selling dangerously faulty goods.

Despite stringent safety regulations and testing, faulty products do enter the market every so often. Sometimes, faulty product injury claims are brought against manufacturers and distributors after unsafe goods have resulted in illness or injury.

Be safe with your vehicle

What constitutes an unsafe product in the context of product liability is usually a matter for the courts to decide, but in most cases it is possible to distinguish faulty goods from products that are inherently dangerous; for example, a vehicle is undoubtedly dangerous because it can easily hurt or kill people, but it would not be deemed unsafe in a product liability context unless it was in some fundamental way different from what was expected of a safe vehicle. A dangerously unsafe vehicle might, for instance, be designed with a faulty brake pedal system, a problem that affected one popular Japanese car manufacturer only recently.

Common injuries

Claims for faulty product injuries are surprisingly common in the UK, where toys, cars and all manner of electrical appliances have been declared unsafe over the years. In some accident claims faulty products have caused serious injury or illness. In the worst cases, people have died due to product faults. Common injuries include blunt force trauma (as in car accidents resulting from faulty mechanisms), burns, sickness and electrocution. Amputations are also common, as demonstrated recently in the case of poorly designed folding pushchairs. Unfortunately, many victims of faulty product injuries are children.

You may be held responsible

UK and EC consumer laws state that manufacturers and producers are primarily to blame for faulty products, but distributors (e.g., wholesalers and retail shops) can also be held responsible. Current law provides various remedies for people who have encountered problems with faulty products, including legislation that simplifies the task of obtaining refunds from suppliers. In case of injury, illness or death, claimants can seek damages through the courts, whilst suppliers may be held criminally responsible.

If you have suffered an injury or illness that was caused by a faulty product, you should receive immediate medical attention from your GP or your local hospital, after which time the claims process can begin when you contact our team of personal injury lawyers.

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