Every year, thousands of consumers sustain serious injuries from defective products. Many of these injuries could be avoided if the manufacturers or distributors of these products took additional steps to ensure consumer safety. The main incentive to increase product safety is to avoid potential liability in product liability lawsuits that provide compensation for personal injuries sustained from the use of a defective product. The damages a consumer is entitled to receive may include compensation for medical expenses, lost wages, loss of physical capacity, pain, suffering, and mental anguish. Punitive damages are also available in certain contexts.

Generally, in a product liability action,a person who has been injured by a defective product should seek compensation from not only the manufacturer of the product, but also all other entities responsible for placing the defective product on the market.

Nevada Product Liability Claims

A consumer who has been harmed by a defective product may bring numerous claims, but typically such claims include negligence, strict liability and breach of warranty. Here, for example, are the elements that must be shown to prove negligence or strict products liability:

                                       Negligence  
Defendant owed a duty of care to plaintiff; 
Defendant breached that duty;
The breach was the legal cause of plaintiff's injuries; and,
Plaintiff suffered damages.  

                              Strict Products Liability  
Defendant placed upon the market a defective product;
Plaintiff's injury was caused by the defect in the product; and,
Such defect existed when the product left the hands of defendant.
 
Proving The Defective Condition Of A Product

Under either the negligence theory or strict liability, the term "defective" usually means that the condition of the product is "unreasonably dangerous" to the consumer or to his property. Products can be unreasonably dangerous due to manufacturing defects, defective designs or inadequate instructions or warnings.

Manufacturing Defect

A manufacturing defect occurs when the manufacturer fails to make the product in accordance with plans and specifications set forth for the product. An injured party must also prove that the manufacturing defect caused the injury.

Design Defect

A design defect occurs when the entire line of products produced by the manufacturer is unreasonably dangerous. Generally, to determine whether the product is unreasonably dangerous, a balancing test is employed. This test weighs the utility of the product against the danger that it poses. In some cases, a plaintiff will offer proof of a "safer alternative design" that the manufacturer could have used which would have prevented the injury.

Inadequate Warnings Or Instructions

Inadequate instructions or warnings occur when the manufacturer or distributor of the product does not provide the consumer or user with sufficient information regarding the danger involved in operating, using, maintaining or cleaning the product. In order for instructions or warnings to be adequate they must be conspicuous and completely warn the consumer of the degree of risk involved in failing to abide by the warnings or instructions. The lack of adequate instructions or warnings may render a product defective even though the product was not otherwise flawed.

In cases involving inadequate warnings, the presumption is that if an adequate warning had been given then the consumer would have read and heeded the warning.

Experts

Under product liability law, an injured party must prove that the product was defective. Therefore, lawyers typically have potentially defective products inspected by one or more qualified experts to determine the exact nature of the defect. If an allegedly defective product is not recovered, an injured consumer may be left with no proof that the product was defective.