Are companies liable if they sell defective products in New York?

Defective products can cause consumer injuries or even death. Most of these injuries or death could have been avoided if companies provided better warnings about their products or if they had just spent the time to design and manufacture safer products.

New York has laws requiring all companies selling or manufacturing products to provide adequate warnings if any part of their product is unsafe or if it is hazardous to the user’s health.

Consumers injured from defective products can bring a lawsuit for a liability claim.

What they have to prove in a defective product claim:

• The product is defective
• The consumer used the product as the product was intended to be used
• The product’s defect caused the consumer’s injury
• The injury caused the consumer to suffer losses
• The product was dangerous or hazardous when it left the manufacturer
• The company failed to warn the consumers that the product was dangerous or hazardous to the consumer’s health
• That the manufacturer should have reasonably known that the product’s design was negligent

Common types of defective products include:

• Defective prescriptions
• Defective workplace machinery
• Defective vehicles: cars, buses, taxis, or motorcycles
• Defective airplanes
• Defective construction equipment and cranes
• Defective power tools

Types of defective product lawsuits:

• Strict Liability claim
• Negligence claim
• Breach of Warranty claim