Were you seriously injured by a product in California? Here are important "truths" about California Product Liability Law by well known California Product Liability Attorney Bill Turley. He teaches lawyers California Product Liability Law.

California Product Liability Attorney: Important "Truths" of California Product Liability Law

I am a California Products Liability Lawyer. Meaning I handle unsafe product lawsuits in California. My name is Bill Turley. I teach lawyers the law. One subject that I have been published extensively on is California products liability law. Here are some "truths" about California Products Liability law.


California Products Liability Law - some "truths"

Unsafe products account for untold injures in California and America each year. By and large, manufacturers dodge responsibility and routinely blame users for product defects. Manufacturers' first defense is to blame the user. "Operator error" is a favorite defense. Shifting responsibility from the manufacturer to the user is a game manufacturer's play. Only it's a deadly game. And, if you or your family members are "it" - - the results are often tragic...

Most attorney web sites give you bubbly language about all the things they are going to do for you. We are a tad different. We are going to tell you the truth. Even when the truth hurts. Here are some "truths" about product liability lawsuits.

Truth number one, products liability cases are incredibly expensive. If you are not seriously injured or have had a family member killed by an unsafe product it usually is not cost-efficient to bring a lawsuit at all. The last thing you want is for the case expenses to be more than the recovery.

Truth number two, because of the huge expense in bringing products liability lawsuits, manufacturers usually "get-away" with injuring folks. Because, most product lawyers realize that the case is not justifiable economically if it is not a large damage case. Sad, but true.

Truth number three, strict liability is usually called "liability without fault." However, if your lawyer can not show that the company "did something wrong" then your chances of success at trial are much, much less.

Truth number four, manufacturing defect cases (products that break and cause injury, such a weld failure) are much stronger than design defect cases. It is easier to prove that something wasn't supposed to break than it is to prove a design defect case.

Truth number five, many - if not most manufacturers - fight and defend design defect cases to the bitter end. I call it the "not my Johnny" defense. When you challenge a company's design, you can usually expect a big-time fight. That is the basis of our office's philosophy with all cases we accept, and especially products liability cases: we don't file the lawsuit unless we are ready to take the case to trial.

Truth number six, it is very, very difficult to win a products liability case in Federal Court. If your lawyer can not file and keep your case in State Court, then you had better take a hard second look at the case. Federal evidence law has lurched hard to the right in the last 10 - 15 years. It is extremely difficult to prevail in federal court. In this writers view, the Federal Courts (read US Supreme Court) cares much more about corporate rights than consumer rights. It's tough to get a fair trial in Federal Court. It wasn't always this way. Hopefully, it won't always be this way.

Here are also some things that are helpful to know about California products liability law.

The purpose behind imposing strict liability to products liability cases "is to ensure that the costs of injuries resulting from defective products are borne by the manufacturers that put such products on the market rather than by the injured persons who are powerless to protect themselves." Greenman v. Yuba Power Products Inc., 59 cal.2d 57, 63 (1963). This goal is furthered by a strict products liability regime by relieving "an injured plaintiff of many of the onerous evidentiary burdens inherent in a negligence cause of action," where the plaintiff has to prove duty, breach, causation and damages. Barker v. Lull Engineering co., Inc., 20 Cal. 3d 413, 431.

Perhaps the most succinct and original exposition of the public policy endorsing a strict products liability over a negligence regime is found in Justice Traynor's Concurring opinion in Escola v. Coca-Cola Bottling Co., 24 Cal.2d 453, 462 (1944):

Even if there is no negligence, however, public policy demands that responsibility be fixed wherever it will most effectively reduce the hazards to life and health inherent in defective products that reach the market. It is evident that the manufacturer can anticipate some hazards and guard against the recurrence of others, as the public cannot. Those who suffer injury from defective products are unprepared to meet its consequences. The cost of an injury and the loss of time or health may be an overwhelming misfortune to the person injured, and a needless one, for the risk of injury can be insured by the manufacturer and distributed among the public as a cost of doing business.


In California, a manufacturer has an absolute duty to deliver its products free of defects and cannot be relieved from being held strictly liable due to a failure of either the retailer or the ultimate purchaser of the product to inspect it for defects. In Vandermark v. Ford Motor Co., 61 Cal.2d 256, 261 (1964), the California Supreme Court held that, even though Ford admittedly did not deliver cars to the authorized dealers that were necessarily free of defects and expected its retailers to inspect for, and repair, any existing defects, Ford, as the manufacturer of the cars, could not escape strict liability because the retailer in this case failed to adequately inspect the defective car sold to the plaintiff.



































The Turley Law Firm has a “State-wide” practice and accepts cases in the following California counties: Alameda County, Alpine County, Amador County, Butte County, Calaveras County, Colusa County, Contra Costa County, Del Norte County, El Dorado County, Fresno County, Glenn County, Humboldt County, Imperial County, Inyo County, Kern County, Kings County, Lake County, Lassen County, Los Angeles County, Madera County, Marin County, Mariposa County, Mendocino County, Merced County, Modoc County, Mono County, Monterey County, Napa County, Nevada County, Orange County, Placer County, Plumas County, Riverside County, Sacramento County, San Benito County, San Bernardino County, San Diego County, San Francisco County, San Joaquin County, San Luis Obispo County, San Mateo County, Santa Barbara County, Santa Clara County, Santa Cruz County, Shasta County, Sierra County, Siskiyou County, Solano County, Sonoma County, Stanislaus County, Sutter County, Tehama County, Trinity County, Tulare County, Tuolumne County, Ventura County, Yolo County, Yuba County.  The Turley Law Firm accepts cases in the following California cities:  Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco, Fresno, Long Beach, Sacramento, Oakland, Santa Ana, Anaheim, Bakersfield, Riverside, Stockton, Chula Vista, Fremont, Irvine, Modesto, Glendale, San Bernardino, Huntington Beach, Oxnard, Fontana, Moreno Valley, Oceanside, Rancho Cucamonga, Santa Clarita, Garden Grove, Ontario, Pomona, Santa Rosa, Salinas, Palmdale, Hayward, Pasadena, Torrance, Corona, Lancaster, Escondido, Orange, Elk Grove, Sunnyvale, Fullerton, Thousand Oaks, El Monte, Simi Valley, Concord, Visalia, Vallejo, Inglewood, and  Santa Clara.

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The Turley Law Firm
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Phone: (619) 234-2833
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The San Diego, California personal injury law firm of The Turley Law Firm serves clients across  Southern California area. We give you straight talk about your legal options. We have handled cases from San Diego to Imperial Beach to Oceanside to Escondido to El Cajon, everywhere in between, such as: Alpine, Camp Pendleton, Cardiff, Carlsbad, Chula Vista, Coronado,  Del Mar, Eastlake, Encinitas, La Mesa, La Costa, La Jolla, Lakeside, Lemon Grove, Mission Bay, NAS San Diego, National City, Naval Station San Diego, North Island, North County, Pacific Beach, Point Loma, Port of San Diego, Poway, Ramona, Rancho Bernardo, Rancho Santa Fe, San Marcos, San Diego Harbor, Santee, Solana Beach, South Bay, Spring Valley, Vista.

We handle cases across California, including: Riverside County, San Bernardino County, Orange County, Imperial County, Los Angeles County, and Ventura County, Colorado River, Mexico, Cabo, Pacific Ocean and all the Oceans and waterways across California and the World.


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