Product liability is an area of the law focused on obtaining compensation for people who are seriously injured by dangerous products. The objective of product liability is to protect the user of a product from injury or death when he or she uses the product for its intended purpose.
Serious injuries often occur due to the defective design or manufacture of a product. Serious injuries also occur when a manufacturer or seller either fails to warn about the dangers of a product or provides inadequate warnings or instructions about a product. If you are injured by a product, you may have a product liability claim for damages due to either a design or manufacturing defect, or the failure of a manufacturer or seller to adequately warn you about the danger of using the product.
Duffy Law represents individuals in product liability lawsuits against manufacturers, sellers, suppliers, and distributors of such products.
Massachusetts Product Liability Law
In Massachusetts, product liability claims typically include causes of action for negligence and breach of warranty.
Negligence is the failure to use reasonable care to protect the safety of other people. To recover damages from a manufacturer or seller under negligence principles, a product user must show that the manufacturer or seller sold a dangerous product at a time when they knew or reasonably should have known that the product presented an unreasonable risk of injury to expected users and failed to warn the expected users about the dangers of the product. The negligence of the manufacturer or seller must be a substantial contributing factor in causing the injury.
Similarly, for a breach of warranty claim, the product user must show that the manufacturer or seller sold a dangerous product when they knew or reasonably should have known that the product presented an unreasonable risk of injury to users, and the breach of warranty was a substantial contributing factor in causing the injury.
The law imposes a legal duty on all manufacturers, sellers, and distributors of products to design, manufacture, sell, and distribute only products that are fit and reasonably safe for ordinary use. Every product manufacturer, seller, and distributor is bound by law to an implied warranty that the product is reasonably safe for its ordinary uses.
Under Massachusetts law, the seller warrants that the products it sells are, among other things, “fit for the ordinary purposes for which such goods are used.” Back v. Wickes Corp., 375 Mass. 633, 640 (1978) (citing Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 106, § 2-314(2)(c)). “The ‘ordinary purposes’ contemplated by this section include both those uses which the manufacturer intended and those which are reasonably foreseeable.” Id. Massachusetts law further requires that product manufacturers anticipate the environment in which their products will be used, and design against the reasonably foreseeable risks attending the product’s use in that setting. Id. at 640-41.
Duffy Law: Rely on Our Experience in Product Liability Cases
At Duffy Law, we provide experienced and dedicated legal representation to individuals and families suffering from serious injuries or death resulting from design defects, manufacturing defects, and failure to warn or inadequate warnings by product manufacturers and sellers. We have successfully recovered substantial settlements in product liability cases for clients throughout Greater Boston, Boston’s North Shore, and all of Massachusetts. We have the knowledge, experience, and expertise to handle a wide variety of injuries resulting from defective and dangerous products. If you or a loved one has experienced a serious injury from a defective product, please contact us today for a free consultation about your potential case.