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Overview: Product Liability in Tennessee
When a company produces and sells a product, they have a certain responsibility to make that product safe and effective to use. Otherwise, consumers who purchase that product can be financially injured by buying an ineffective product, or can be physically injured by buying a dangerous or defective product.
Product liability applies to a range of products—almost anything that can be manufactured. This includes consumer goods, cars, machinery, medication, and many more.
One way in which consumers can stand up to companies who produce and sell defective or dangerous products is by filing a product liability lawsuit. In a product liability lawsuit, a manufacturer can be held liable, or responsible, for causing consumers injury because of a problem with a product.
Lawyers in Tennessee are available to help consumers determine if they may have personal injury claims in a Tennessee product liability lawsuit. Experienced Tennessee lawyers can help consumers work through the complexities of state and federal law when making personal injury claims.
Manufacturers include people who design and make parts of a product or the whole product. For example, car companies make and sell cars, but other companies make and sell products that go into the car, like the engine and axles.
In some cases, the seller of a product can be held liable for a defective product, in addition to or instead of the manufacturer. This can be the case if the seller misrepresents the product as safer or more effective than it really is, and in doing so, attracts customers to purchasing the product who otherwise would not have purchased it or would have used it differently.
Effective Product Liability, Personal Injury Claims
To a make effective personal injury claims in a product liability case, a person must prove that their injury came from a problem with a product itself, and not another kind of problem, like user error.
Usually, a person with successful personal injury claims in a product liability case will be able to show that a product is more dangerous than most consumers would anticipate, or show that the manufacturer should not have put the product not he market at all because of its dangerous or defective qualities.
In some cases, consumers can show that a manufacturer should have warned that a product was dangerous, but failed to do so, and in failing to warn users, put expel at risk.
Tennessee Product Liability Lawsuits
In many cases, Tennessee pus a limit on the time frame in which consumers can file personal injury claims in product liability lawsuits. Tennessee has a 10-year product liability statute of repose, meaning that consumers usually cannot file a product liability lawsuit more than 10 years after the alleged injury due to a product occurred.
Because of this limitation, General Motors was able to dodge a product liability lawsuit filed by two Tennessee residents who claim that they got into a car accident because of a flaw in their vehicle’s admission switch. Â
But, a US Army veteran has also reportedly filed a lawsuit under the same act, claiming that GM violated Tennessee’s product liability laws by selling defective combat earplugs to the military, which caused hearing loss.Â
