If you have been injured as a result of a defective product in the last three years, then you may have a strong claim for personal injury.
Defective Product Injury Claims
If you have been injured as a result of a defective product, you may be able to bring your claim as a product liability claim. Your claim will usually be against the producer or manufacturer of the product, although it is possible to bring a defective products claim against a supplier e.g. a shop.
We place a large amount of trust in the items that we purchase. For the most part we are correct to place our trust in these items as they should have been rigorously checked and tested before being placed on the shelves for us to purchase. This being said, there are a small proportion of people who do get injured from products and as a result they need to make a claim for their injuries.
If you have been injured through a defective product you can strengthen any claim you may have by:
1. Keeping the product in its original state.
2. Keeping your proof of purchase for the product.
3. Reporting the product to the seller immediately.
4. Seeking medical advice if necessary.
Defective products are subject to ‘strict liability’, which means that you only need to prove that injury was caused by the product’s defect. You do not need to show that the producer was negligent. Liability for a Personal Injury claim stemming from a defective product cannot be excluded by contract. Producers usually take out Product Liability Insurance to cover the cost of compensation claims.
Defendants in this type of claim can, however, fall back on circumstances that may mitigate against the claim. I have set out some of these circumstances below:
- The defect could not have been discovered at the time with existing scientific and technical knowledge.
- The defect only occurred after the product was supplied.
- The product was supplied privately and not intended for sale.
- The producer did not supply the product.
How Nelsons can help
At Nelsons, we deal with claims for defective products on behalf of many clients. If we feel that you have a claim that we can take forward, we can offer no win no fee agreements where you receive 100% of your compensation.
If you have any questions in relation to the topics discussed in this article, please contact our expert Personal Injury team in Derby, Leicester and Nottingham on 0800 024 1976 or via our online form.