Defective products cause thousands of injuries every year in the United States. This number is especially high in New York, a prosperous city where stiff competition and urgency to reach the consumer first compel many manufacturers to cut corners and compromise with the safety of their products. You may be the next victim. You need evidence of the following to prove defective product liability lawsuits in New York:
You were injured or suffered damage in any other way.
You have to prove that you were actually injured or suffered monetary loss after using a product to have a valid claim. You have to provide evidence of your injuries—medical records, photographs, or eyewitness accounts—to claim compensation. If you want to claim compensation for any other damage you may have sustained, like loss of valuable kitchen appliances when a defective stove exploded or damage to the premises, you have to provide evidence of your monetary loss.
The product you used is defective.
To prove that the product you used was defective, you have to provide evidence of one or more of the following:
- The product has a manufacturing defect. This is usually a simple claim to make.
- The product has a design defect. This is a comparatively stiffer claim to prove because you may have to also prove that the design of the product is “unreasonably dangerous.” You may have to provide expert testimony to back your claims.
- The product did not come with adequate warnings about a possible usage hazard or a design defect. You can claim liability if the product did not come with warnings about a potential danger that is not readily apparent to the average user. You may also file a defective product liability case claiming that although warnings are included in the package, they are not adequate or readily comprehensible.
The defective product injured you or caused damage in any other way.
Eyewitness testimonies can help bolster your claims that you were injured or suffered damage of any other kind after using the defective product. However, you have to also prove that your injury was caused solely due to defective design of the product and not for any fault of yours. For instance, your car brakes have a tendency to jam due to a design defect. But your defective product liability case does not stand ground if the automobile manufacturer can prove that you were speeding and therefore couldn’t make the stop in time to avert a crash.
You used the product in exactly the way it is meant to be.
You have a valid case if you can prove that you were injured by a defective product even though you used it exactly according to the manufacturer’s instructions. However, in some cases, you also have a valid case if you can prove that you were not misusing the product even though you did not adhere to the usage guidelines to a T. This means that you were using the product like any other reasonable customer would do.
When you know what evidence you need to back your claims, your chances of enforcing a favorable outcome in defect product liability lawsuits in New York increase mightily.