The responsibility of manufacturing to provide safe products is clear product liability refers to the legal obligation of a manufacturing or seller to compensate for injury or damage caused by a product.
The growth in both the number of lawsuits and the size of awards to victims has been dramatic. Awards in excess of a million dollars are no longer rare. The reasons are clear:
More manufacturing products are in the hands of amateurs creating more opportunities for injury some traditional legal defences of manufacturers have become eroded making it easier for a victim to see a manufacturer successfully, the consumer movement has encouraged consumers action generally, the publicity given to large awards has stimulated more lawsuits.
The basic defence against liability is prevention by eliminating the causes of the injuries or damage. All company functions contribute to this prevention activity.
Most product liability lawsuits civil lawsuits are aimed at manufacturing companies because of their ability to pay not at individuals such as design specialists.
But in a criminal liability case the state is the plaintiff. In recent decades public prosecutors have pursued individuals such as the head of a company or a manager of product development or quality criminal liability requires proof that the manager knowingly performed illegal actions or was grossly negligent in executing duties. As it is difficult to establish such proof the likelihood that a manager will be found guilty of criminal liability is small.