Utah Product Liability Lawyer

Most injury cases are about a person's mistake. Product cases are about a thing that failed: a tire that separated, an airbag that never fired, a roll cage that collapsed, a lithium battery that caught fire in a garage. The company that designed, built or sold that product can be responsible for the harm it caused, even when someone else also made a mistake.

We handle product liability claims throughout Utah, often alongside an ordinary injury claim against a driver or property owner. They take more work than most cases because the product has to be kept, examined and explained, and the defense is usually a large company. For the other kinds of injury cases we handle, see our practice areas.

What Utah's Product Liability Act Requires

The Utah Product Liability Act is in Title 78B, Chapter 6, Part 7 of the Utah Code. Under § 78B-6-703(1), a product is not considered defective unless, when the manufacturer or other initial seller sold it, it had a defect that made it unreasonably dangerous. “Unreasonably dangerous” means dangerous beyond what an ordinary and prudent buyer or user in that community would contemplate, taking into account the product's characteristics and risks and what that user actually knew (§ 78B-6-702(4)).

Three Kinds of Defects

Design defects. Every unit was built as intended, but the design itself was unsafe, such as a vehicle that rolls too easily or a cage too weak for a foreseeable rollover.

Manufacturing defects. The design was sound, but this unit came off the line wrong: a bad weld, a contaminated battery cell, a tire with an internal separation.

Warning defects. The danger was not obvious, and the labels or instructions did not tell users about it or how to avoid it.

The standards presumption. Under § 78B-6-703(2), a product is presumed free of defects if its design or manufacturing methods conformed to government standards for the industry that existed when they were adopted. The presumption is rebuttable, meaning evidence can overcome it.

The deadline. A product liability action must be brought within two years from when the injured person discovered, or with due diligence should have discovered, both the harm and its cause (Utah Code § 78B-6-706). That is half the time usually allowed for negligence claims, and relabeling the claim does not help: in Utah Local Government Trust v. Wheeler Machinery Co., 2008 UT 84, the Utah Supreme Court said a claim for negligent manufacture of a product defective when sold still falls under the two-year limit. See our two-year deadline guide and statute of limitations guide.

Products Behind the Cases We Handle

Vehicles and their parts: tires, airbags, seat belts, brakes and steering, covered in our defective car parts guide. Off-road machines: side-by-side rollovers are on our UTV rollover page, and claims involving Polaris machines on our Polaris RZR page. Vehicle rollovers generally are covered on our rollover accident page.

Fires and burns: e-bike and scooter batteries, chargers, fuel systems and appliances, with more on our burn injury page and in our e-bike and scooter accident guide. Household and workplace products: ladders, power tools, furniture that tips, and machines without proper guards.

Who Can Be Sued

Depending on the facts, a claim can name the manufacturer of the finished product, the maker of a failed component, and the distributors and retailers who sold it. Each defendant pays only its own share of fault under § 78B-5-818, and fault can also be assigned to the injured person or to others, so identifying every responsible company matters. Changes made after the sale, like an aftermarket lift kit or a removed guard, count as fault under § 78B-6-705. And under Utah Code § 78B-6-707, a clause in a sales contract requiring the buyer to indemnify or defend the manufacturer is void if a design or manufacturing defect causes injury or death.

Injured on the Job by a Defective Product

Workers' compensation is usually the exclusive remedy against your employer (§ 34A-2-105). It does not protect outside companies. When a defective machine, tool or vehicle made by someone else causes a workplace injury, § 34A-2-106 allows an action for damages against that third party in addition to the comp claim, subject to the insurer's reimbursement rights.

Damages in a Product Case

• Medical expenses: past and future treatment, surgery and therapy.
• Earnings: lost wages and lost earning capacity.
• Non-economic harm: pain, disfigurement and lost enjoyment of life; see damages in Utah injury cases.
• Wrongful death: claims for families; see wrongful death claims in Utah.

Keep the Product, and Everything That Came With It

The product is the case. Do not throw it away, return it, or let an insurer or repair shop dispose of it. Store it where it will not be altered, photograph it, and keep the packaging, manual, receipt and any recall notice. Recall notices from agencies like the Consumer Product Safety Commission can help show a problem was known, but a missing recall does not mean a product was safe. Manufacturers often settle product claims confidentially, so be wary of anyone who quotes a typical amount. The steps in a Utah injury case explain what happens next.