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Strict Liability Overview
According to Legal Information Institute’s law dictionary, the legal concept of strict liability applies when an entity, either a person or organization, is considered at fault, or liable, for damages caused by their actions regardless of their intent or state of mind at the time.
Strict liability applies in limited situations, generally, when someone is engaged in an extremely dangerous activity. If strict liability applies to a lawsuit, the plaintiff has less to prove than in a regular negligence case.
Strict liability can apply in certain criminal law and tort cases, such as personal injury or products liability lawsuits.
Does Strict Liability Apply to My Personal Injury Lawsuit?
Personal injury lawsuits are generally covered by the legal concept of negligence, meaning that a plaintiff must show that the defendant acted negligently and caused their injury or damages. However, there are a limited number of situations where the plaintiff does not have to show that the defendant acted negligently when they caused the plaintiff’s injuries. These are strict liability lawsuits.
Those who engage in abnormally dangerous activities may be subject to strict liability, according to Wikipedia. For example, if a company stores highly flammable or explosive material, they may be held responsible for any damages if the material ignites and causes harm to another, even if the fire was an accident or caused by something the company could not control.
Strict liability may also apply to those who own dangerous animals. Many states have laws that apply strict liability where someone is injured by another’s animal. This means that even if the animal’s owner did all they could to prevent an attack or bite, if the animal injures someone, the owner will be held responsible.
Dog bites are one of the most common situations where strict liability comes up. Some states are more strict, and hold dog owners responsible even if the dog had no history of biting and they had no idea a bite was going to occur. Other states are more lenient; until a dog demonstrates it will bite, the owner will not be held responsible if their dog bites someone out of the blue. However, once a dog has bitten someone or otherwise shown dangerous behavior, the owner becomes responsible.
When Does Strict Products Liability Apply?
The concept of strict liability may also apply to certain products liability lawsuits. As noted above, plaintiffs usually must demonstrate negligence; however, in certain cases where someone is injured by a product, the company that produced or otherwise brought the product to market may be held responsible regardless of whether they were negligent or not.
According to the Legal Information Institute’s law dictionary, the concept of strict liability is only applied to a subset of products liability lawsuits. Consumers injured by a defective product may be able to apply strict liability when they can show that the defective product caused their injury. In these cases, whether or not the company that produced the product exercised care does not matter.
There are some limits to the application of the concept to defective products. The person injured by the product must have been using the product in a normal way, or, in other words, in a way that a reasonable consumer would expect to use a product. If a consumer was reckless when they used the product or failed to heed warnings or instructions, strict liability may not apply.
