What are the Differences Between a Personal Injury Claim and a Product Liability Claim?

We all have heard the stories about e-cigarettes or vaporizers being dangerous. They can easily catch fire or even blow up, causing injury. This leads many to wonder about the differences between a personal injury claim and a product liability claim.

Of course, you should always speak with a personal injury accident lawyer in Philadelphia after suffering a personal injury to help determine how to move forward with a claim. In the meantime, we have some helpful information to determine the differences between a personal injury claim and a product liability claim.  

Product Liability Claims

A product liability claim is made to seek damages for an injury caused by a product. This is when negligence occurs due to a defective product. There are three different types of product liability claims.

• Product Design Defect

If the design of a product is a danger, then it falls under the defective design of a product. For example, a chair produced with just three legs can easily tip and cause injury. It was designed from the very beginning to be dangerous.

• Product Manufacturing Defect

This is the most common claim. A product manufacturing defect occurs when a product doesn’t perform safely, even though it says it does. Usually, during the manufacturing process, the product becomes unsafe. For example, if a set of tires is labeled to be safe but ends up having a defect and causing an accident, then it would be considered a product manufacturing defect.

• Warning/Labeling Defects

This claim occurs when a manufacturer fails to produce a warning label on a product. The manufacturer knew of a potential danger but didn’t disclose it. A manufacturer is responsible for always putting warning labels on potentially dangerous products.

Personal Injury Claim

We have discussed personal injury claims many times before. A personal injury is when trauma or injury occurs to the human body, including the mind and emotions. You can move forward with a personal injury claim depending on how you suffered from the personal injury.

Personal injury claims usually represent those injured due to someone else’s negligence, such as a car accident caused by another driver or a slip and fall incident.

In car accidents, a person has to be held liable, not a product of the vehicle. Defected tires would fall under a product liability claim in most cases. A driver texting and driving and causing an accident would most likely fall under a personal injury claim. But again, every case is different.

The one common purpose of personal injury claims and product liability claims is that they are designed to protect the right of those injured to receive compensation. One of our experienced personal injury attorneys can help you with the proper type of claim from start to finish.