When defective products cause injuries, manufacturers, distributors, and retailers must be held accountable — whether the product is heavy machinery on a jobsite or a consumer good in your home.
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Overview
Product liability law holds manufacturers, distributors, and retailers responsible when defective products cause injuries. Unlike most personal injury cases, California product liability claims can be brought under a strict liability theory — meaning you don't have to prove the defendant was negligent, only that the product was defective and that the defect caused your injury.
Defective products come in many forms. Manufacturing defects occur when a product departs from its intended design — a batch of industrial equipment with a faulty weld, a vehicle with a defective brake line. Design defects exist when the product's design itself is unreasonably dangerous, even when manufactured perfectly. Failure-to-warn claims arise when a product lacks adequate instructions or warnings about known risks.
Arns Davis Law represents individuals and families harmed by dangerous consumer products, defective medical devices, faulty automotive parts, toxic substances, and unsafe machinery. Many of our product liability cases grow out of our construction injury practice — defective scaffolding, malfunctioning cranes, backup alarms that fail, power presses operated without proper safety guards. When we see the same product injuring multiple workers across multiple jobsites, we investigate whether a broader defect exists.
Product liability cases often require extensive expert analysis — engineering testimony, accident reconstruction, materials testing, medical causation opinions. We work with specialists across these fields to build cases that can withstand the aggressive defense strategies deployed by manufacturers and their insurers.
Recent Results in Injury and Death Cases
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See All Firm Results →What You Should Know
Under California's strict liability doctrine, you can hold a manufacturer liable for injuries caused by a defective product without proving the manufacturer was negligent. You need to show that the product had a defect, that the defect existed when the product left the manufacturer's control, and that the defect caused your injury. This makes product liability claims more accessible than standard negligence cases.
Anyone in the product's chain of distribution can potentially be held liable: the manufacturer, the distributor, the wholesaler, and the retailer. In some cases, a component manufacturer can be liable if the component itself was defective. The key is identifying every party in the chain and determining where the defect originated.
The general statute of limitations is two years from the date of injury. However, if the injury wasn't immediately discoverable — for example, if a toxic substance caused illness that developed over time — the clock may start from the date you discovered or should have discovered the injury. Government entity claims have shorter deadlines (six months for a notice of claim).
If the product was substantially modified after it left the manufacturer's control, and that modification caused or contributed to the injury, the manufacturer may argue it's not liable. However, manufacturers can still be held responsible if the modification was foreseeable or if the original defect would have caused the injury regardless of the modification. These are fact-specific questions that require careful legal analysis.