Recognizing defects in the design of unsafe products

It is not unusual for product manufacturers to release new designs for the items they make. This is because it is in the interest of sellers to keep their products up to date and competitive with what their competitors have available on the market. When a Kentucky resident must replace something that they have purchased, a manufacturer will hope that the consumer will re-buy what they are replacing and will attempt to entice them with a modernized and improved design.

Product designs can change for the better, but this is not always the case. In an attempt to make a product more appealing or useful to consumers, a manufacturer may introduce dangerous design elements into its new configuration. Defective and unsafe product designs can hurt consumers and can impose liability on the manufacturers who put the dangerous items into the stream of commerce.

Consider, for example, a company that chooses to redesign its popular children’s room humidifier. In an effort to make its latest model more appealing than its old model, the maker of the humidifier tried to decrease the time it took the humidifier to get up to temperature and therefore the amount of time it took to make it function. To do so the manufacturer had to remove a piece of insulation between the heating element and the surface of the humidifier.

While the redesign of the humidifier may help the manufacturer meet its goal of a more efficient product, if a court found it to be foreseeable that children would burn themselves on the products then the company may be responsible for the injuries their design caused. If the manufacturer is sued, the court may evaluate the maker’s options for making the product safer based on the costs it expended and may award victims damages for the harm they sustained. Design defects can lead to serious harm and injuries and can leave victims with long-term pain and suffering.

If you or someone you know have been injured by a defective product, speak with a Kentucky products liability attorney today.