Legal Aspects of Lower Extremity Injuries: An Overview of Products Liability Law in the 1980's

Products liability laws provide three major theories - negligence, breach of warranty, and strict liability - under which a person who has been injured may recover for injuries and damages incurred in an accident. While these theories may consider any culpable conduct of the defendant, more often they focus solely on the question of whether the product manufactured, sold, or maintained by the defendant was unreasonably dangerous. The effect of these laws is to transfer in large measure the social cost of accidents involving products to manufacturers and retailers of the products.