Strict liability the manufacturer is liable for a defective product that caused injury regardless of whether they exercised care in making it. The focus is on the product itself not on the manufacturer’s conduct.
Negligence the manufacturer failed to exercise reasonable care in design, testing, manufacturing, or providing adequate warnings. Proof of the manufacturer’s conduct is required but additional damages may be available.
Breach of warranty the product failed to meet the manufacturer’s express promises or implied promises of fitness for its intended use. Most product liability cases proceed under strict liability. We evaluate all three theories for every case.
Manufacturing defects a flaw in how a specific unit was made different from the intended design. A batch of medication contaminated in production, a vehicle part that did not receive proper treatment, or a medical device with a component improperly installed at the factory. Manufacturing defects typically affect a subset of products not the entire line.
Design defects the product’s design itself is unreasonably dangerous even when manufactured exactly as intended. Every unit is defective because the design is defective. Georgia courts evaluate design defects under a risk utility test whether the inherent risks of the design outweigh its utility and benefits considering whether a feasible safer alternative existed.
Failure to warn (marketing defects) a product that is reasonably safe when used with proper instructions can become dangerous when those warnings are missing, inadequate, or buried in ways users won’t find them. Drug side effects, safety precautions for power tools, and contraindications for medical devices these warnings are required because users are entitled to make informed decisions about risk.
Georgia’s product liability statute of repose (O.C.G.A. § 51-1-11(b)(2)) creates a 10-year hard limit on strict liability claims, running from the date of the product’s first sale. If more than 10 years have passed since the product first entered the market, strict liability claims are generally barred regardless of when the injury occurred.
Important exceptions
Failure to warn claims are not subject to the statute of repose a manufacturer’s duty to warn of known dangers continues indefinitely. Negligence claims may proceed beyond 10 years in cases involving reckless design or ongoing failure to warn. The repose period runs from first sale not from when you purchased the product.
