NCJ Number
118850
Journal
Trial Volume: 25 Issue: 8 Dated: (August 1989) Pages: 50-54
Date Published
1989
Length
5 pages
Annotation
This article guides attorneys in identifying and presenting evidence of manufacturer liability in cases where children have been injured by consumer products.
Abstract
The typical product manufacturer's defense for a case of a child's injury from the product is that the child was careless or the parents should have been more attentive to the child. Some attorneys have refused to take products injury cases in the belief that children or parents were negligent. Such a perspective fails to note that products used in and around homes will be confronted by children and used in a variety of playful and creative ways. Further, manufacturers cannot expect that their liability is relieved or mitigated when parents do not compensate for lack of product safety when in the hands of children. Attorneys must focus the pleading, discovery, and litigation on the fact that those who market products that are likely to fall into children's hands have a duty to consider the dangers these products pose to children. Common law does not require the plaintiff to meet the burden of showing that the exact nature of the child's injury was foreseeable, but only that a reasonably prudent manufacturer could foresee that injury could occur if the proper safeguards were not provided. When safeguards for a product are readily available and a manufacturer chooses not to use them, then liability for injury can be incurred. 14 notes.