251-217-9733
Product Liability Defense
Defending the people who make and sell things, when something goes wrong with one of them.
What a Product Liability Claim Is
A product liability claim alleges that a product caused injury because something about it was unreasonably dangerous (its design, its manufacture, or the warnings and instructions supplied with it).
Claims are typically brought on negligence and strict liability theories, and the difference matters. A negligence claim asks whether the defendant behaved reasonably. A strict liability claim largely does not. It asks whether the product was defective and whether the defect caused the harm, which removes an argument the defense would otherwise have.
Everyone in the chain can be named: manufacturer, component supplier, distributor, and retailer. A business that only resold a product is frequently surprised to find itself a defendant, and its position depends heavily on contracts and indemnities agreed long before anyone was injured.
Who We Defend
Manufacturers
Product, component, and equipment manufacturers across industrial, consumer, and construction products.
Distributors and resellers
Businesses in the chain of supply who did not make the product but are named anyway.
Component suppliers
Where a part is alleged to have caused failure in a larger assembly.
Equipment lessors
Businesses that supplied equipment used by someone else when an incident occurred.
Insurers and TPAs
Defending insured manufacturers and coordinating with carriers on coverage and strategy.
Sound familiar?
How We Defend These
Secure the product and the record
The physical product, the design file, the testing history, and the complaint history. Cases are frequently decided by what the documents show about what the company knew and when.
Establish what actually failed
Misuse, modification, wear, and a genuine defect look similar in an initial report and are entirely different defenses. Getting expert eyes on it early is usually decisive.
Look up the chain as well as down
Component suppliers, indemnity agreements, and insurance obligations can move the exposure somewhere else entirely, but only if someone reads the contracts.
Who Does This Work
Jordan W Gerheim
Product liability litigation as part of a practice spanning construction, insurance, professional liability, and wrongful death defense.
William R. Lancaster
Four decades defending civil damage claims including industrial accidents, with more than a hundred cases tried to judgment.
Benjamin N. Kearns
Business and insurance defense litigation, including claims where product and premises exposure overlap.
Design, Manufacture, or Warning, Which Claim Is This?
Three theories, three completely different defenses. The plaintiff chooses; you live with the consequences.
Design defect
The product was dangerous as designed (every unit shares the flaw). The defense usually turns on whether a safer alternative design was feasible and whether the design met the applicable standard. The most serious of the three, because it implicates the entire product line.
Manufacturing defect
The design was sound but this unit departed from it. The defense turns on quality control records, batch history, and whether the departure actually caused the injury. Narrower exposure, and often more defensible.
Failure to warn
The product was as designed and built, but the risk was not adequately communicated. The defense turns on what was known, what was said, how it was said, and whether the user read or heeded it. The most frequently added theory and often the most winnable.
How These Matters Are Billed
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Frequently Asked Questions
We only sold the product. Why are we a defendant?
Because liability can attach along the chain of distribution, and a plaintiff will typically name everyone. Your position usually improves considerably once the manufacturer is in the case, and it may improve further depending on what your supply agreement says about indemnity. Those contracts are worth reading on day one rather than month six.
What should we do the moment an incident is reported?
Preserve the product exactly as it is, do not repair or discard it, and preserve the associated records (design files, testing, batch data, complaint history, and communications). Then call counsel before making statements about cause. Well-intentioned early explanations that turn out to be wrong are among the most damaging documents in these cases.
Does a recall mean we have admitted the product was defective?
Not automatically, but how a recall or field notice is worded matters enormously, because it will be an exhibit. Recalls are frequently the right decision for safety and commercial reasons. They simply need to be drafted with the litigation reality in mind rather than only the communications one.
The user modified the product. Does that end the claim?
It can be a strong defense, though it is rarely automatic. The questions are usually whether the modification caused the injury, whether it was foreseeable, and whether it was warned against. Evidence of the modification needs preserving immediately, because it frequently disappears during repair.
Do you represent injured consumers?
Not typically. Our product liability experience is predominantly defense-side, representing manufacturers, distributors, and resellers, and we are not structured as a plaintiff contingency firm. If you have been injured by a product, we will point you toward counsel who handle that work.
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If an Incident Has Been Reported, Call Today
Evidence moves, products get repaired, and memories change. Book a Risk-Free Strategy Session or call 251-217-9733 now.