Product Liability Terms and Definitions

Civil Liability In a civil lawsuit, if a party is found to be at fault, that party is liable. This is equivalent to a guilty verdict in the criminal system, except that civil liability usually means that the party at fault pays money damages to the other party, whereas the guilty party in a criminal suit may have to go to prison. Negligence Negligence occurs when someone breaches some sort of duty to another person, causing some kind of injury to that person. State of the Art At the time of manufacture, your product was produced using the highest level of scientific and technical knowledge available. Lemon laws Help protect consumers by requiring a refund or replacement if a substantial problem is not fixed within a reasonable number of attempts or if the vehicle has been out of service for a certain number of days Unjust Enrichment The general principle of unjust enrichment is that one person should not be able unjustly to enrich himself at the expense of another. Torts law A civil wrong or breach of a duty to another person, as outlined by law. A very common tort is negligent operation of a motor vehicle that results in property damage and personal injury in an automobile accident. Warranties Fitness and merchantability The two most important warranties created by U.C.C. Article 2 are the warranty of merchantability (2-314) and the warranty of fitness for a particular purpose (2-315). The warranty of merchantability is a promise that the goods are fit for the ordinary purpose for which goods of that type are used. Strict Products Liability The legal liability of manufacturers and sellers to compensate buyers, users, and bystanders for damages or injuries suffered because of defects in good purchase or a tort which makes the manufacturer or seller liable if the product has a defective condition that makes it unreasonably dangerous. Design Defect If the actual design of a product makes it unreasonably dangerous, then every product with that design is defective. For example, the poor design of the Ford Pinto is what made it defective, and because the design was common to all Pintos, they were all defective in design. Extended warranty A service contract is sold separately and is a promise to pay for certain repairs or services. Service contracts are usually high-profit add-ons, costing hundreds to more than $1,000.

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	Did You Know?
	The CPSC warns consumers about the hazard of exposure to consumer products containing asbestos These products include: Asbestos paper and millboard,Asbestos-cement sheet,Dry-mix asbestos furnace or boiler cement,Asbestos wood/coal stove door gaskets,Asbestos laboratory gloves and pads,Asbestos stove mats and iron rests,Central hot-air furnace duct connectors containing asbestos,Bulk asbestos fibers,Some of these products still are for sale or may be in consumers' homes. Handling these products may release asbestos fibers; breathing asbestos fibers is known to cause cancer.