Products Liability Newsletters
Direct-to-Consumer Advertising of Prescription Drugs
What is the learned intermediary doctrine?
Liability of Ammunition Manufacturers
Gun manufacturers have been faced with product liability suits claiming that the manufacturers should be held strictly liable for producing certain guns, even if they worked exactly as intended, because the guns constituted defective, "unreasonably dangerous" products. What about the manufacturers of ammunition? Gun violence would not be possible without ammunition. Can ammunition manufacturers be held liable for producing unreasonably dangerous products?
Product Liability Law and the Reasonable Design Alternative Test
In many product liability cases, the plaintiff alleges that a design defect was responsible for the injuries incurred. For example, in a product liability case alleging that a car's gas tank exploded in rear-end collisions, the plaintiff would allege that the car was defectively designed. In these types of cases, some courts have established a "reasonable design alternative" test. Under this test, a product is defective in design when the foreseeable risks of harm posed by the product could have been reduced or avoided by the adoption of a reasonable alternative design by the seller or other distributor and the omission of the alternative design renders the product not reasonably safe.
The Bioterrorism Act of 2002
After the terrorist acts that caused the collapse of the World Trade Center in New York on September 11, 2001, the U.S. Congress passed The Bioterrorism Act of 2002. The full name of the law is the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness Response Act of 2002. The main goal of the law is to protect the food supply from bioterrorism. The law also covers drinking water security and controls on dangerous biological agents and toxins. The main provisions of The Bioterrorism Act of 2002 are discussed below.
The National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986
In the 1980s, there was increasing public debate over the safety of childhood vaccines. There were reports of serious injuries or death supposedly related to adverse reactions to childhood vaccines. Because of the threat of lawsuits, some companies stopped making vaccines.
