Products Liability: A Comprehensive Guide to Design Defect Manufacturing Defect and Failure to WARN

120 questions on products liability, answered and cited by the UpLaw editorial team.

• Can a manufacturer contract out of personal-injury exposure on consumer goods?
• How did Daly v. General Motors resolve the comparative-fault paradox?
• How did Riegel v. Medtronic reshape medical-device litigation?
• How does an MDL differ from a class action?
• How does a statute of repose differ from a statute of limitations?
• How does New York's Voss formulation state the risk-utility test?
• How does Restatement (Third) § 4 treat regulatory compliance and violation?
• How does spoliation cut both ways in a products case?
• How does state of the art differ from industry custom?
• How does the Class Action Fairness Act affect products classes?
• How does the learned-intermediary doctrine interact with the heeding question?
• How does the Magnuson-Moss Act limit warranty disclaimers?
• How does the malfunction doctrine let a plaintiff prove defect circumstantially?
• How does the Restatement (Third) define the three categories of defect?
• How does the same saw case look different in a mandatory-RAD state versus California?
• How does the substantial-alteration defense backfire?
• How does UCC § 2-318 handle privity for warranty claims?
• How do strict liability, negligence, and warranty compare on their core features?
• How do the Second and Third Restatements differ point by point?
• How do the three defect theories play out together in a single case?
• How is fitness for a particular purpose narrower and more powerful?
• How severely does comparative-fault law vary by state?
• Is there a common-law duty to recall?
• What are the classic examples of manufacturing defects?
• What are the elements of a failure-to-warn claim?
• What are the federal reporting obligations when a product hazard is discovered?
• What are the four camps in the design-defect state split?
• What are the four elements of a post-sale duty to warn?
• What are the four pillars of Justice Traynor's argument in Escola?
• What are the recognized limits on the learned-intermediary doctrine?
• What are the three elements of the Boyle government-contractor defense?
• What are the three mechanisms of federal preemption?
• What are the three practice points on the government-contractor defense?
• What are the two prongs of Barker v. Lull?
• What are the Wade factors for risk-utility?
• What compensatory damages are recoverable in a products case?
• What constitutional limits apply to punitive damages?
• What did Albrecht clarify about the "clear evidence" standard?
• What did comments i, j, k, and n to § 402A contribute?
• What did Denny v. Ford Motor Co. establish about pleading warranty alongside tort?
• What did Greenman v. Yuba Power establish?
• What did Soule v. General Motors hold about complex products?
• What did Winterbottom v. Wright hold, and what did courts do with it?
• What does assumption of risk require in a products case?
• What does a typical innocent-seller statute provide?
• What does Restatement (Second) § 402A say, and why does every clause earn its keep?
• What does the Beshada/Feldman pair reveal about "strict" warning liability?
• What does the implied warranty of merchantability require?
• What does the strict-liability theory ask, and what is its practical virtue?
• What escape valves does the Restatement (Third) provide from the RAD requirement?
• What four questions must be answered about the governing state before drafting?
• What insurance-coverage fight runs alongside the tort case?
• What is a manufacturing defect, and why is that standard genuinely strict?
• What is market-share liability, and how far does it reach?
• What is the bulk-supplier doctrine?
• What is the consumer-expectations test, and what is its intuitive appeal?
• What is the crashworthiness doctrine, and why is it so expensive?
• What is the economic-loss rule?
• What is the evidentiary problem with manufacturing-defect claims?
• What is the foreign-manufacturer problem, and how does it reach online marketplaces?
• What is the heeding presumption, and why is it a very big deal?
• What is the learned-intermediary doctrine, and what is its rationale?
• What is the lesson of Geier and Williamson read together?
• What is the Lexecon limit on MDL courts?
• What is the most consequential strategic choice in every products case?
• What is the obvious-danger paradox?
• What is the product-line exception to successor non-liability?
• What is the punitive-damages template established by Grimshaw v. Ford?
• What is the Riegel/Buckman corridor?
• What is the sophisticated-user defense?
• What is the standardized MDL playbook?
• What is the third problem with the consumer-expectations test?
• What is the traditional rule on successor liability?
• What jarring rule results from the brand/generic preemption split?
• What kinds of products classes do get certified?
• What makes a warning adequate?
• What method did Cipollone establish for express-preemption analysis?
• What must an acquisition diligence memo cover for a durable-goods manufacturer?
• What must a plaintiff actually prove to establish a reasonable alternative design?
• What question does products liability ask that the rest of tort law usually avoids?
• What secondary sources does a products practitioner actually use?
• What should both sides do at intake and preservation in a products case?
• What three moves are packed into Cardozo's formulation in MacPherson v. Buick?
• What three warranties does UCC Article 2 supply?
• What turns a compensatory products case into a punitive one?
• What was the design flaw in § 402A itself?
• What was the privity rule, and why did it collapse?
• When is a component-part manufacturer liable?
• Where are the boundaries of the economic-loss rule fought?
• Where is the line between an express warranty and puffery?
• Which parts of products liability law move fastest and must be checked fresh?
• Which Restatement (Third) sections should a practitioner know by number?
• Which sellers fall outside the chain of distribution?
• Which states have codified their products liability law, and why does that matter?
• Which states have gone further with compliance presumptions?
• Why are Barker and Restatement (Third) § 2(b) described as irreconcilable?
• Why are generic drugs broadly preempted?
• Why are innocent-seller statutes really removal statutes?
• Why are retailers and distributors strictly liable?
• Why did Wyeth v. Levine reject preemption for brand-name drugs?
• Why do competent counsel plead strict liability, negligence, and warranty together?
• Why do defendants fight to characterize a case as manufacturing rather than design?
• Why does a plaintiff plead negligence if strict liability is easier?
• Why does a warning not cure a bad design?
• Why does device preemption turn on the regulatory pathway?
• Why does Kumho Tire matter so much in design-defect cases?
• Why does product traceability increase legal exposure?
• Why does the sophisticated-user defense fail against a documented latent failure mode?
• Why do personal-injury products class actions almost always fail?
• Why do plaintiffs' lawyers constantly lose warranty counts to the notice requirement?
• Why is Barker's burden shift so dramatic?
• Why is but-for causation often the defendant's strongest ground?
• Why is design defect the hardest category?
• Why is failure to warn the most frequently pleaded and most frequently won theory?
• Why is it essential to identify the governing state's law in a products case?
• Why is the product-misuse defense narrow?
• Why is the Restatement (Third) controversial?
• Why is UCC § 2-725 warranty's cruelest feature?
• Why is "WARNING: Keep hands away from blade. Read instruction manual" inadequate?
• Why was the single-plaintiff case never the real exposure?