Hurt by a dangerous or defective product in Oklahoma and need to know if you have a case?

Product Liability

There are many ways that consumer products can cause harm – everything from a bad design to poor manufacturing to incomplete or missing warning labels. If you want to know if you have a case, contact our office to speak with a skilled, experienced defective product lawyer today.

You may have been looking for an Oklahoma injury lawyer as a result of an automobile accident. However, if your accident was caused by your car’s faulty wiring, malfunctioning seatbelt or unopened airbag, your case has brought you here: you could be a victim of manufacturer negligence, commonly known as product liability.

A Product Liability case arises when a product is defective either through improper manufacturing or design. These defects can happen to any kind of consumer product, and can happen in a number of ways:

Design Defects

These are problems that existed before the product was even made. There may not be any broken pieces or crossed wires, but a design flaw makes the product needlessly dangerous, such as misplacement of handles for proper carrying.

Manufacturing Defects

These happen during the construction or assembly of a product. Usually there are only a handful of these “errors” among the product, rather than the item as a whole. For example, an improper stamping or molding can result in sharp edges-and potential injury-if the items are not properly checked before being sent to retailers.

Marketing Defects

This is when a company has issued a product that could be potentially harmful without proper instructions or labeling. For instance, hair dryers are required to be labeled to advise consumers on the dangers of the heating element. Injuries resulting from marketing defects are commonly called “failure to warn.”

Manufacturing and design defects can lead to serious injuries

Mass production of consumer products is an enormous-and expensive-process. A manufacturer will sometimes cut corners that result in a potential harm to consumers, such as using a thinner coat of protective plastic to save money, or neglecting to properly analyze every product that comes off the assembly line. At best, the result is a harmless “dud”-a non-functioning product that can be exchanged for another.

But what if the result is a serious flaw? A component with improperly beveled edges that does not fit with the machine? What if the machine is a jackhammer, or a motorcycle? Auto parts that are made incorrectly could start fires; airbags that are improperly installed can fail to open. We may not realize it, but every day defective products cause needless injuries, and can even result in death.

If you believe your personal injury was due to a defective product, call Buxton Law Group today at (405) 604-5577 today for advice on your Oklahoma product liability case.

A potential malfunction can happen during any part of manufacturing, including:

  • The planning and design phase
  • The construction of component parts
  • The main assembly line where the product is put together
  • The wholesale outfit that sends the product out to stores
  • The retail store where you finally purchase the product
  • Any other suppliers or distributors

If you aren’t properly warned about a product, you could be seriously hurt

Even if a product was working as it was designed to do, it still could have caused an injury. Many of the products and appliances we use every day, such as hair dryers, televisions, toasters, cable boxes and other household conveniences are required to be issued with warning labels. If used improperly, these things can result in a significant injury, and sometimes death. If a manufacturer neglected to label his product, than he has failed to notify the consumer of the dangers of its use. This is known as “failure to warn,” and is a common problem against potentially dangerous products.

We often see warning labels on things like alcohol and cigarettes, where we may anticipate the dangers. But what about the common products we never even consider a threat? Items such as pool ladders, airbags, and children’s toys-things that are often taken for granted as safe-carry the same potential to malfunction. Failure to Warn is especially important because it goes beyond obvious household dangers. For consumer protection, anything that could potentially cause harm when operating should carry such a warning.