In recent years, we’ve heard about cellphones getting too hot and exploding in their user’s hands, cheaply made tires blowing out and furniture tipping over on top of children. Each of these is an example of a potential products liability case
In this type of litigation, consumers sue manufacturers, designers or marketers for injures and other damages they suffer from their use of the defective products. However, there are some restrictions about when and how you can file.
Section 52-577a of the Connecticut General Statutes requires that all products liability cases be filed within three years of damage, a death or an injury occurring.
It may be possible for an injured party to file suit after this time frame has lapsed provided that it can be proven that the litigant was unaware of the injuries or damages until after the three years lapsed. There is a statute of repose which often makes it impossible for a products liability lawsuit to be filed if more than 10 years have elapsed since the product was in the possession of the defendant.
Section 52-572h of the state code allows victims who are at least partially responsible for their own injuries to recover damages under what’s referred to as the Pure Comparative Fault standard. Victims who are found to be at least partially negligent will likely be compensated at a reduced rate.
Connecticut is one of very few states that allows consumers to file product liability cases to recover the cost of the item they bought, even if they weren’t harmed by it. This right is protect under Sec. 52-572m of the state’s code.
Injuries that individuals suffer due to their use of defective products can’t always be blamed on the companies that produced or sold the products. A New Haven products liability attorney will advise you that, in order to determine negligence, it matters how you were using the product at the time and whether it contained any warning labels advising of potential harm.
