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When Can I File a Defective Product Claim After a Car Accident?

If you have been injured in an accident and believe a defective part of your vehicle (or another vehicle) was to blame, you can file a product liability lawsuit against the responsible party. That party could be a vehicle manufacturer, or a manufacturer, distributor or seller of the part in question.

There are a couple different types of defective product claims you might file in the case of a car accident. Those categories are:

  • Inherently dangerous design: In this type of lawsuit, you would argue that the vehicle or part was properly manufactured, but were inherently flawed in their design to such a degree that they would have a high associated risk of injury. These can be complicated cases, because the vehicles or parts may have been on the market for quite some time before the dangers are discovered. This is the kind of lawsuit that will often be associated with products that eventually get recalled.
  • Defective manufacturing of vehicles or parts: In this type of lawsuit, you would argue that the design for the vehicle or part was sound, but the execution in the manufacturing process resulted in a defect that made that part dangerous. This could occur due to errors at a manufacturing plant where the part or vehicle is produced, or it could be a result of an error or accident that occurs during shipping or anywhere else along the supply chain before the vehicle reaches the owner.

To learn more about the steps you should take if you believe you were injured due to a defective part in an automobile, contact an experienced auto accident attorney at Jakubowski, Robertson, Maffei, Goldsmith & Tartaglia LLP.