MINNESOTA PRODUCT LIABILITY 101

After I blogged for a few weeks on specfic product liability issues, a friend suggested that I back up and discuss some basics about Minnesot product liability cases. So here is a brief description of how product liability cases work in Minnesota.

When any of us uses a product, we assume that the manufacturer has looked out for our well-being and safety in designing, testing and making the product. Tragically, this isn’t always the case. Some manufacturers are more concerned with the bottom line than with the impact an unsafe product can have on its user. As a former product liability defense lawyer, I know this all too well. The end result is dangerous and unsafe products that lead to personal injuries.

Minnesota's Product liability laws exist to hold manufacturers and sellers of unsafe and dangerous products responsible by compensating injury victims. But proving a manufacturer was negligent – or did or didn’t do something they should have – can be difficult. So most states, including Minnesota, have adopted ”strict liability” laws to help level the playing field. Under strict liability, the focus is on the product rather than the manufacturer’s conduct. In other words, no matter how much care a manufacturer took in making a product, if the product is “unreasonably dangerous”, the injured person does not have to prove the manufacturer acted negligently.

In Minnesota, for example, to collect on a product liability claim, an injured person only has to prove that:

1) The product was defective and in an unreasonably dangerous condition;
2) That the defect existed when the product left the manufacturer or seller’s control; and
3) That the defect in the product was the proximate or substantial cause of the injury.

If you have been injured by a dangerous or defective product, contact an experienced product liability attorney Nate Bjerke at Champion Law. Our lawyers have handled product liability cases in the Twin Cities, greater Minnesota and across the country. Call us in St. Paul at 651-766-5886 or Minneapolis at 612-743-4918.