If you’ve been injured because of a malfunctioning product, it is normal to consider taking action against the manufacturer. After all, it was the manufacturer’s negligence that caused you harm, right?

Sure. But liability for a defective product can be held by anybody in the supply chain, depending on certain factors and local laws. Some states have laws that protect the seller from all liability while other states follow a Strict Liability Rule, in which the retailer is held responsible, without fault.

The rationale is that sellers have a duty toward protecting their customers from harm. If they know that the product is defective, but sell it anyway to make profits, then they can most certainly be sued for negligence. In Strict Liability states, the injured plaintiff does not even have to prove that the seller was negligent. Retailers can also be sued for breach of warranty.

Negligence

A retailer can be held liable for negligence if he or she knew or should have known about the potential hazards of a product and chose to sell it to consumers anyway, putting them at risk of loss or injury.

Thus, retailers can certainly be held responsible for selling a product that has been issued for recall. In some cases, it is the duty of retailers to inform their buyers if a recall has been issued after they had purchased the product, warn them about the dangers and tell them about what they have to do to get the product fixed or replaced.

Put simply, a retailer must ensure that the products that they sell are safe for consumption by their customers, and in the event that the product fails to meet those standards, the seller can be held liable.

A retailer may also be sued for damages if they willfully withheld important information about the product including guidelines or safety and could be punished if they did any of that with malicious intent.

Strict liability

In the case of strict liability, the plaintiff doesn’t have to prove that the seller was being negligent and can instead, recover damages without proving fault. The retailer can be held liable to pay damages whether or not it contributed to the plaintiff’s injury or harm.

This rule helps force retailers to go the extra mile in ensuring that the products that they sell are indeed safe for use by the consumer. In other words, the strict liability rule provides sellers with an  incentive to ensure safety by avoiding lawsuits and compensation payouts. This way, the law helps promote general public safety.

There are many states that have some form of the strict liability rule. To find out if your state is one of them, you can connect with an attorney for free.

Breach of warranty

A seller or store retailer can be sued if they fail to meet a promise regarding the product that they sell to a consumer. Typically, there is an expressed or implied agreement between the seller and buyer with respect to the product’s condition, quality and safety. When this agreement is violated in some way, the retailer may be held liable for breach of warranty. There are kinds of warranty with every product:

• Written: Promises that are printed on the label or on warranty cards. If the label says that the batteries will last 72 hours when continuously used, but it runs out several hours earlier than the promised 72, the company must replace or compensate for it.
• Spoken: Promises made in conversation while in a professional capacity. If a salesman tells you that the laptop will work another 5 years, but instead it crashes 6 months in, then you can hold the salesman responsible. He would have to find a way to ensure that your laptop gets fixed for free. Proving spoken warranty breach can be difficult.
• Expressed warranty: This is an agreement that has been explicitly and clearly made either in spoken or written format. For example,
• Implied warranty: This is an agreement that is inherently agreed on during purchases. For example, a kitchen knife should be functional and be able to cut through vegetables. There are different kinds of implied warranty.
• You may have an implied warranty of fitness claim if you receive a product that was meant for a different purpose, or was not fit, even after the seller knew or had reason to know what your purpose for the required product was. For example, you wanted a warm, practical jacket for the coming winter but received a casual, cotton one instead.

If you have suffered the ill effects of a product that was defectively designed, defectively manufactured or misrepresented in advertisement, then you may be able to recover damages from not just the manufacturer, but the retailer or seller as well. Connect with an attorney to learn more about filing a joint liability lawsuit today for free.

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