Suppose that you recently purchased a new car. Unfortunately, you have discovered that your new automobile tends to stall anytime that you have to stop at an intersection. Would the car’s poor performance suggest that you could have a product liability claim? If so, what should you do about it?
First, you would need to determine what sort of claim you wanted to make.
Would you plan to claim that the vehicle or one of the parts had been improperly made at the plant? Realize that you could not rule out the possibility that something might have gone wrong during the shipping process.
Would you have reason to claim that either the vehicle or one of the parts had been given a dangerous design? That sort of claim is usually made if a defect has gone unreported until many months after the defected product first appeared on the market.
Next you would have to decide whom to sue.
Personal Injury Lawyer in Richmond Hill knows that if the defect were in the design, then the company’s designers would be the targets of your lawsuit. That would probably force you to sue the company. If you were to win your lawsuit, the sued carmaker would not necessarily plan to recall all of the existing cars, but it would feel compelled to eliminate the dangerous design from any newer models.
If a mistake had been made during the manufacturing process, then you would have to determine whether it had been made at the plant where your automobile was assembled, or at the plant where a given part was created. If you had not purchased the part on your own, then you could have grounds for suing both the car’s manufacturer and the maker of the defective part.
You might need to sue someone that helped with distribution of the poor-performing vehicle. If you had purchased a new vehicle, then you could not sue a used-car dealer, but you might have reason to sue a dealership. Remember, you should not discount any auto supply shop, or shipper of vehicles or automotive parts.
If you got your set-or-wheels from a dealer, did that dealership know all of the state’s rules, with respect to inspections? In at least one state, vehicles must be inspected every 6 months. There, the buyer of any vehicle should learn whether or not that planned purchase has the right sticker.
Suppose, that you bought a car in that same state, and were told that the car’s windshield bore the most recent sticker. Later, suppose you got ticketed for not having the correct sticker. In that case, you could eliminate the manufacturer, the shipper or any supplier of parts. You would have grounds for suing the dealership.