Therefore, the company asserted, she and her doctor should be held responsible for her injuries. Such injuries are the major cause of death for people between the ages of 1 and 36, outnumbering deaths from cancer or heart disease. Tens of thousands of product injury lawsuits are filed each year. As the number of claims has risen, so too have the number of companies forced to file bankruptcy because of massive suits. Moreover, an increasing number of companies are claiming that they have pulled established products off the market and halted research on promising products for fear of liability.
Manufacturers claim that they are victims of a system gone haywire.
According to strict liability laws, a manufacturer can be held liable for injuries even when he or she had no way of preventing those injuries. Consumer activists, on the other hand, claim that the threat of product liability suits forces manufacturers to make product safety a priority and that those who suffer injuries caused by products should be compensated for their injuries by the manufacturers of those products. Product injuries represent a major cost of introducing products into a society. Since virtually every new product carries some unknown risk, a possibility always exists that the product may cause injuries or impose other costs on users. Manufacturers contend that consumers should bear more responsibility for product injuries because the costs of placing full liability onto companies far outweigh the benefits.