Strict Liability

Strict liability means responsibility without fault. In most injury cases, the injured person has to prove the other side was careless (negligence). Under strict liability, that step drops out: if the product was defective and the defect caused the injury, the seller can be liable even if it took every reasonable precaution.

Tort law applies strict liability in a few settings: keeping certain dangerous animals, carrying out abnormally dangerous activities such as blasting, and, most important for consumers, selling defective products. Strict products liability usually covers three kinds of defect:

• Manufacturing defects, where one unit or batch came off the line different from the design, such as a contaminated drug lot.
• Design defects, where the whole product line is unreasonably dangerous as designed.
• Warning defects, where the company failed to give adequate instructions or warnings about a known risk.

Strict liability is a claim for the injured individual, which is why defective drug and device cases are usually filed as individual lawsuits grouped into a mass tort rather than as a class action. Strict liability removes the need to prove carelessness, but it does not remove the need to prove the defect and that the defect caused your specific injury, which often requires medical records and expert testimony. Rules also vary by state, and some states limit strict liability claims against prescription drug makers.

You can see these theories at work in the pressure cooker burn lawsuits and the hernia mesh lawsuits. For how individual injury cases differ from class actions, read class action vs. mass tort.