What is Product Liability?

Product liability is the area of law in which manufacturers, distributors, suppliers, retailers, and others who make products available to the public are held responsible for the injuries those products cause. Although the word “product” has broad connotations, product liability as an area of law is traditionally limited to products in the form of tangible personal property.

A well known example of a Product Liability case is when car manufacturer Toyota was forced to issue a massive vehicle recall. On October 10, 2012, Toyota announced a recall of 7.43 million vehicles (2.47 million in the US, 460,000 in Japan, 1.39 million in Europe, 3.11 million in other markets) worldwide. In the US the, recall affected the 2005-2010 Yaris, Corolla, Matrix, Camry, RAV4, Highlander, Tundra and Sequoia as well as the Scion xB and xD. The reason for the recall was a failure by Toyota to install a fail-safe called “brake to idle fail safe.” This was found to increase the chance of an accident when the accelerator malfunctioned. Toyota’s failure to include the fail-safe mechanism resulted in a large litigation case, one of the biggest in recent history, as well as a class action lawsuit in which the company agreed to pay $1.1 billion to settle.

At Merson Law, we take the responsibility that manufacturers, distributors, suppliers, retailers, and other product makers have to the public very seriously. Have you been hurt by a defective product? We can help you. Contact us now while you still have time to file a claim.