Premises Liability vs. Product Liability 

Both premises liability and product liability cases fall under the personal injury umbrella of civil lawsuits, but each is very different from one another in terms of their causes. Each type of case involves negligence on behalf of the property manager or manufacturer, and victims of either type of case can get help from a personal injury attorney in Delaware County, PA. The following is a look at premises liability vs. product liability, what sets them apart, and why you should take legal action if you’ve been injured in either type of situation through no fault of your own.

Premises Liability or Slip and Fall Injuries

Premises liability covers the concept that the person or parties who own or otherwise control a property must keep its visitors safe. That means making reasonable attempts to alert visitors that hazardous conditions are present. This includes marking spills with cones, not allowing water to pool and/or ice up during a Philadelphia winter, and removing debris to prevent trips from happening.

The key word in premises liability is reasonable in that the owner or management has to make efforts to keep up with hazardous conditions once they become known. If the hazard was present for some time, known about, or the party in control failed to correct the condition in a reasonable amount of time, this can lead to a slip-and-fall lawsuit. Knowing about a hazardous condition and not doing anything to fix the problem is considered negligence, especially when someone slips, falls, and sustains injuries.

Not every slip and fall will rise to the level of personal injury because accidents happen. However, there are situations where the circumstances surrounding the accident are the result of poor decisions made by the property owner or manager, and the injured party can seek compensation for their injuries through a premises liability lawsuit.

Product Liability

A product liability lawsuit involves a dangerous product that was sold on the market to consumers who thought they were buying a safe product. This type of lawsuit is known as a strict liability lawsuit because the manufacturer is liable even if they were unaware of the defect in their product. Unlike a premises liability case, there is no reasonable defense in a strict liability suit because the product has to be safe for its appropriate use.

There are four main categories of product liability lawsuits:

• Design defect.
• Manufacturing defect.
• Marketing defect.
• Breach of warranty.

For a product liability case to proceed, the injured party has to show that they used the product as intended or directed but still suffered harm. It also has to be shown that the product was defective when it left the control of the manufacturer, and the defect caused injury to the user. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court helped courts around the country adopt two standards to test the viability of a product liability case.

One standard, known as the consumer expectation standard, means a product is considered defective if there’s no way to anticipate the danger of the product by the consumer. The other standard is the risk-utility standard, which states that a product is defective if the harm is greater than the benefit of the product’s design. If either of the conditions in the standards are present, a product liability lawsuit can be formed.

Contact Us at Katz Injury Law for Help With Your Accident

Accidents happen, but they tend to happen when the party in control of the property or creation of a product has been negligent. Sometimes, the only way to get a resolution is to file a lawsuit against the negligent party and ask a court to decide the outcome. Call us at Katz Injury Law today to talk to the best slip and fall lawyers serving Philadelphia and learn more about how we can help you proceed with your case.