What is Product Liability? — Transcript

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1. 0:02imagine that you buy the latest gadget
2. 0:04online like the new hoverboard motorized
3. 0:07skateboard 10 minutes into trying it out
4. 0:09its battery seems to fail and your
5. 0:11hoverboard stops suddenly you fall
6. 0:13forward and break your arm if you were
7. 0:15very hurt would you be able to sue the
8. 0:17hoverboard manufacturer or the company
9. 0:20who sold it to you how do you establish
10. 0:22who is to blame liability describes the
11. 0:25state of being legally responsible for
12. 0:27something especially when it causes harm
13. 0:30product liability is the area of law in
14. 0:32which consumers can bring claims against
15. 0:34manufacturers and sellers for products
16. 0:36that injure people product liability
17. 0:38makes up a large portion of the cases
18. 0:40that end up in court when you get hurt
19. 0:43by a product you bought two conditions
20. 0:45need to be met to establish whether the
21. 0:46seller or manufacturer is liable for
22. 0:48your injury first whoever made or sold
23. 0:52you the product must do it as a business
24. 0:54the seller can't be someone making
25. 0:55things from home or is a hobby second
26. 0:59the expectation is that the product has
27. 1:01not been changed before reaching you the
28. 1:03consumer a company's responsibility for
29. 1:05making sure its products are safe is
30. 1:08different from an individual's
31. 1:09responsibility to behave safely if
32. 1:11you're suing an individual you need to
33. 1:13prove in court that the defendant wasn't
34. 1:15being careful enough to keep people safe
35. 1:18product liability is different product
36. 1:20liability is a form of strict liability
37. 1:23which means that there is no need to
38. 1:25prove whether the manufacturer was being
39. 1:27careful the manufacturer is liable any
40. 1:30time it is shown that their product is
41. 1:32defective to sue for product liability
42. 1:35you only need to show one of three
43. 1:37things to hold the manufacturer liable
44. 1:39you need to show that either they built
45. 1:41the product badly a manufacturing defect
46. 1:44they designed the product badly a design
47. 1:47defect or they didn't warn you about a
48. 1:49risk or danger associated with the
49. 1:50product a failure to warn let's look
50. 1:53more closely at these three reasons for
51. 1:55product liability the first reason for
52. 1:58liability is a manufactur uring defect
53. 2:01if a particular product you bought was
54. 2:03different from all the others in a way
55. 2:04that makes it dangerous it has a
56. 2:06manufacturing defect let's say you buy a
57. 2:09hoverboard but the one you bought unlike
58. 2:11all the others does not have its wheel
59. 2:13attached correctly and the wheels fly
60. 2:15off as you're using it you can hold them
61. 2:17liable for your injuries because the
62. 2:19manufacturing defect can be shown the
63. 2:22second reason for liability is a design
64. 2:25defect when a product is not safe as it
65. 2:27should have been design defects exist
66. 2:30before the product is even manufactured
67. 2:32a flaw in the design makes it unsafe to
68. 2:34use imagine if the wheel fell off your
69. 2:37hoverboard because they only used rubber
70. 2:39bands instead of bolts the product was
71. 2:41built correctly but the correct design
72. 2:44wasn't safe this manufacturer would be
73. 2:47liable for a design defect in these
74. 2:49design defect cases the court often
75. 2:51Compares competing manufacturers
76. 2:53versions of a product because that's how
77. 2:55they see if a flawed design could have
78. 2:57been improved in a cost effective way
79. 2:59way some kinds of danger cannot be
80. 3:02designed out of a product swimming pools
81. 3:05will always create a drowning risk and
82. 3:07combustion engines will always produce
83. 3:09toxic exhaust the third form of product
84. 3:12liability arises when there is potential
85. 3:14danger involved with using a product and
86. 3:16the customer wasn't warned about how to
87. 3:18avoid harm we call this third defect a
88. 3:21failure to warn if you are making or
89. 3:23selling a product like this you can be
90. 3:25sued for failing to warn people about
91. 3:27the risk of
92. 3:28danger imagine you're riding your
93. 3:30hoverboard doing cool tricks of course
94. 3:33you will be wearing a helmet if you look
95. 3:35inside that helmet it'll let you know
96. 3:37what kinds of activities that the helmet
97. 3:38is not able to protect you from this
98. 3:41warning exists because it's not clear
99. 3:43how strong the helmet is just by looking
100. 3:45at it and if you use a bicycle helmet
101. 3:47for football practice motorcycling or
102. 3:49skydiving you'll be unprotected if a
103. 3:52product doesn't provide the user with
104. 3:54enough information to know the risks of
105. 3:56their product and how to avoid those
106. 3:57risks the manufacturer can be liable for
107. 4:00a warning defect in their product
108. 4:03manufacturers and sellers are not always
109. 4:05liable for injury caused by their
110. 4:07products if you use a product in an
111. 4:09unforeseeable way like trying to use
112. 4:11your car as a pontoon boat they can't be
113. 4:13held liable for injuries that result if
114. 4:16you were to modify a product after you
115. 4:18buy it like replacing the tires on your
116. 4:20car with skis same thing goes another
117. 4:24important thing to keep in mind is that
118. 4:26product liability is about injury that
119. 4:28results from physical problem
120. 4:30there is no liability that results when
121. 4:32your video game freezes and you lose
122. 4:34your high score understanding the
123. 4:37principles of product liability gives us
124. 4:39the tools to disentangle more complex
125. 4:41liability questions presented by
126. 4:43emerging technology let's consider
127. 4:46product liability with respect to
128. 4:47driverless cars imagine that a mass
129. 4:50Market driverless car becomes available
130. 4:52and you buy
131. 4:53one for most people the car works well
132. 4:56without any issues but yours is
133. 4:58different and glitchy one day the car is
134. 5:00supposed to take you from home to work
135. 5:03instead it drives you off the road and
136. 5:05into the lake in this case you could sue
137. 5:07for product liability under the theory
138. 5:09of manufacturing defect but instead what
139. 5:13if every model of the car drove off the
140. 5:14cliff because the code told all of them
141. 5:17to do so that's a design defect when you
142. 5:20think about it this way the way the
143. 5:22product liability law is already written
144. 5:24is robust enough to deal with many of
145. 5:26the challenges presented by emerging
146. 5:28technology that's not to say that
147. 5:30driverless cars do not present any
148. 5:32tricky liability issues if you modify a
149. 5:35car by installing driverless car
150. 5:37Hardware who is liable in the event of
151. 5:40an injury the car manufacturer or the
152. 5:43modifier rewriting all the codes seems
153. 5:46to be the same as replacing the wheels
154. 5:48with pontoons but what if you just
155. 5:50install a simple app that accidentally
156. 5:52causes the car to stop working entirely
157. 5:55is it the car Maker's fault the app
158. 5:57maker or you for putting the pieces
159. 6:00together to make the useless machine or
160. 6:02what if you have a car in which a human
161. 6:05is supposed to take over whenever the
162. 6:06autonomous system senses dangerous
163. 6:09conditions imagine the car signals the
164. 6:11driver to resume control but then
165. 6:14they're in an accident as the driver
166. 6:15scrambles to take the wheel who is
167. 6:17liable in this case the driver or the
168. 6:20autonomous system designer driverless
169. 6:22cars are often said to present
170. 6:24inscrutable problems for product
171. 6:25liability law on the contrary the same
172. 6:28issues become more approp when we ask
173. 6:30the right questions by digging into the
174. 6:32details of what caused harm and how
175. 6:35product liability law provides
176. 6:36straightforward ways to establish who is
177. 6:38liable for
178. 6:42[Music]
179. 6:55injury