Product liability is what holds a manufacturer, seller or retailer of a product responsible if they allow a product that is defective to reach a consumer. This is true to the case, no matter if the consumer has been considered negligent or not. There are many laws regarding product liability and these determine exactly who is responsible for the fault. It could be that all parties in a distribution chain are held liable; the responsibility can vary depending on the state. Each state has its own set of commercial statutes which contain warranty rules affecting product liability.
A defective product lawsuit is often taken out with the aim to get compensation for the consumer from the manufacturer of the product, distributor and retailer. The three main types of claims can allege: defective design, where the product was designed with a fault that had potential to cause harm, a manufacturing defect where it was the process of creating and manufacturing the product that deemed it unsafe, or failure to warn. This is where manufacturers or other parties didn’t tell the consumer about potential hazards that could arise from the product, or the correct way to safely use it.
If you have ever fallen victim to a product defect that has caused harm, you might have thought of looking into a defective product lawsuit. One of the biggest questions often asked is “When can I file a defective product lawsuit?” This usually depends on a statute of limitations which essentially rules on how soon a lawsuit must be filed after an event (such as an injury) has taken place.
There is another concept that can affect it too, which is a statute of repose. While both are laws that specify the amount of time you get to file a lawsuit, they are both separate and independent of each other. A main similarity between the two is that if either expires in your case, then you will lose the chance of receiving compensation from your claim.
A statute of limitation determines how long you have from when your injury happened to file a lawsuit against it. The date of this varies between states, but in Texas, this is two years. This is much more specific to your own case, whereas a statute of response is more generic and applies to all product liability claims that might arise to do with a given product. A statute of response specifies the date a product was first sold to when you can bring forth product liability claims. Again, this can differ between different states, but at present is 15 years in Texas from the product’s first sale date.
It is important to remember that the quicker you act after having an injury or harm occur from a product, the better your chances are of having a successful case. If you are involved in a Defective Product Lawsuit in Lufkin TX you will need an experienced product liability lawyer who can assist you with this and this is something we can help you with.