What Is Strict Product Liability?

Within the law, there are burdens of proof that must be met by one side of a case in order to prevail. In the United states, for instance, the prosecution must convince a judge or jury beyond a reasonable doubt of the defendant's guilt in order to prevail. In civil litigation, the plaintiff generally has the burden of proof. Although most jurisdictions originally applied a negligence standard to civil product liability cases, many have changed, or are changing, to a strict product liability concept. Under a strict product liability system, the plaintiff only has to prove that he or she was injured and that the defendant's product caused the injuries.

Product liability stems from the need to compensate consumers who have been injured by a product. A defendant in a product liability lawsuit can be the designer, manufacturer, supplier, or retailer of the product in question. In most jurisdictions, product liability cases fall into one of three categories — design defects, manufacturing defects, and failure to warn cases.

Historically, product liability cases were treated the same as most other tort cases by requiring the plaintiff to prove negligence on the part of the defendant in order to be able to receive compensation for his or her injuries. Negligence requires showing that the defendant failed to use a reasonable amount of care in order to prevent injury to the plaintiff. In product liability cases, courts looked to "industry standards" to determine if the defendant fell below the reasonable care standard.

The problems with requiring a plaintiff to prove negligence in a product liability lawsuit are numerous. First, by using an "industry standards" model, the entire industry could basically fail to use reasonable care and a specific defendant would not be negligent regardless of how egregious his or her actions were. In addition, when a consumer is injured, as is bound to happen, someone must bear the financial burden and most courts agree that it should not be the consumers. Courts and scholars have started to lean toward the decision that the manufacturers are in a better position to bear the financial burden. Designers and manufacturers are also more likely to use appropriate safety precautions when they know that strict product liability will apply making them liable for all injuries that their product causes.

Many states within the United States have made the transition to strict product liability standards for lawsuits. In addition, the European Economic Community officially adopted the strict product liability standard in 1985. Under the strict product liability standard, the injured party must only show that he or she actually suffered injuries and that the defendant's product was the cause of the injuries in order to be eligible to receive compensation.