Chicago Product Liability Lawyer - Article

A Brief History of Product Liability Law

Our country’s product liability laws actually began in the UK, with an 1842 case known as Winterbottom vs. Wright. Winterbottom, the plaintiff, was seeking damages from Wright, the producer of a defective stagecoach that had caused injuries to Winterbottom. In this case, the court decided that a person can only be considered legally negligent if he or she has failed to meet conditions spelled out in a signed contract. Since there was no contract between the parties in this suit, the plaintiff lost.

Changing Views

American law maintained that a contract was necessary before a person could commit negligence until the 1940s. During this time, people began to argue that requiring a contract was too strict; that consumers should be able to trust the companies they deal with without a legally binding contract. To protest the law as it was written, juries throughout the 1950s began to vote in favor of plaintiffs based on any detail they could find that might constitute a warranty.

The Law Today

In the landmark 1963 case of Greenman vs. Yuba Power Products, the state of California did away with the need to sign a contract before one becomes entitled to safe products. New state laws held that corporations owed a duty to the public to produce reasonably safe products, and that failing to meet this duty meets the legal definition of negligence. This attitude quickly spread across the country, and today no state requires consumers to sign contracts before they are entitled to basic safety.

Contact the Chicago Personal Injury Lawyers

If you have been injured by a defective product, you may be entitled to compensation. Contact experienced Chicago product liability lawyers Friedman & Bonebrake at 312-466-8200 today.