Manufacturing Liability in Texas Law

Manufacturing Liability and Personal Injury Accidents under Texas Law

Every day, products that are defective, poorly designed or manufactured poorly cause serious injuries to children as well as adults. If you have been injured by defective or unreasonably dangerous product may be able to seek compensation from the manufacturer, distributor or even retailer under product liability law.

Laws regulating consumer product safety exists both at the federal and state level. Injuries may occur as a result of defects in design, manufacturing and/or marketing.

If a manufacturer fails to design a product so that it is safe for its intended use and and could have used an alternative design that would've been safer in order to avoid a foreseeable risk the product is considered to have a design defect.

Even if a product has been designed properly a manufacturer may fail to use the right materials or use inadequate quality control undoing the product's properly engineered safety features resulting in a manufacturing defect that can cause injury or even death.

A marketing defect may occur if anyone involved in the manufacturing, distribution and/or sale of a product fails to warn of any inherent dangers or provide instructions on proper use. Some products that are safe when a consumer has been well-informed of its intended use can become dangerous without the proper warnings and instructions. Manufacturers have a duty to warn users of non-obvious aspects they can make a product dangerous.

Potential liability from defects can be found in almost any type of product, from automotive defects, household items, machinery and tools, medical devices, even prescription drugs.

To succeed in a manufacturing liability case the plaintiff must prove that the product was defective when it left the manufacturer and and that the defect was the proximate cause of the injury. Proximate cause of an injury means that the injury was a direct natural or probable result of the defect's existence.

In a negligence claim the plaintiff must prove that the defendant including anyone involved in the chain of distribution from the designer, to the manufacturer and the seller, has failed to exercise reasonable care in the product design and manufacturing and/or delivery for use not only to the initial purchaser, but to family members, innocent bystanders, and even persons who may lease from or hold the product for the purchaser.

Product liability warranties are warranties relating to a product quality or fitness for use, either express or implied. Breaches of warranty are similar to strict liability claims in that no negligence or other fault needs to be proven.