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With regard to products liability, a defendant is liable when the plaintiff proves that the product is defective, regardless of the defendant's intent. It is irrelevant whether the manufacturer or supplier exercised great care; if there is a defect in the product that causes harm, he or she will be liable for it.

A plaintiff suing under a theory of strict liability will need to show that there was a defect, that the defect actually and proximately caused the plaintiff's injury, and that the defect made the product unreasonably dangerous.

Product liability is one part of tort law that holds companies accountable for a defective product when it causes harm to another person. The defect is often the result of negligence when designing, making, and selling a product. Successful product liability claims rest on showing that: The company acted negligently.

Strict liability Under California law, if a product is more dangerous than it should be – or it contains inadequate warnings – whoever designs, makes, or sells the defective product is strictly liable for any injuries that result when the product is used in a reasonably foreseeable way.

There are two main ways to prove a product liability case: 1- the Consumer-Expectation Test and 2- the Risk Utility Test. Under both tests, the plaintiff has the burden to prove that the product that caused injury was defective and unreasonably dangerous.

There are three common elements to all product liability lawsuits, regardless of the legal theory that the lawsuit is brought under. The lawsuit must involve a product, the product must be found to be defective, and the product defect must be found to be the proximate cause of the injury.

Products liability claims can be based on negligence, strict liability, or breach of warranty of fitness. This will typically depend on the jurisdiction within which the claim is based, due to the fact that there is no federal products liability law.

A plaintiff does not have to prove negligence to prevail in a defective product case. Liability will be found if the plaintiff can prove that the product was defective and there is a sufficient causal connection between the defendant, the product and plaintiff's injury.

In order to establish negligence, you must be able to prove four “elements”: a duty, a breach of that duty, causation and damages. Duty: You must first prove that the person against whom your claim is made owed a duty to you.