Product liability lawyers for New Jersey and New York

People trust that the things they buy will work as intended. When a product catches fire, breaks apart or fails at the worst moment, the injuries can be life changing. Burns, amputations and head injuries are among the harms a defective product can cause, and the companies that make and sell those products often have lawyers involved from the start.

This page explains how product liability claims work in New Jersey and New York, what evidence matters most, and how local issues such as e-bike battery fires fit in. It is general information, so talk with a lawyer about your own facts.

What counts as a defective product

Product liability is the area of law that holds manufacturers, and sometimes others who sell or distribute a product, responsible for injuries caused by a defect. Both states recognize three main kinds of defects.

• Manufacturing defect. Something went wrong when that particular unit was made, so it differs from the manufacturer’s own design or from identical units. A cracked weld, a contaminated batch or a battery cell built with a flaw are examples.
• Design defect. Every unit is made as intended, but the design itself is unreasonably dangerous. A vehicle that rolls over too easily or a tool without a guard that a safer design would include are examples.
• Failure to warn. The product lacks adequate warnings about hidden dangers or adequate instructions for safe use.

Common cases include e-bike and scooter battery fires, vehicle defects such as faulty airbags, brakes and tires, power tools and industrial machines, household appliances, children’s products, and medical devices and medications.

Product liability in New Jersey

New Jersey claims are governed by the Product Liability Act (the “PLA”), N.J.S.A. 2A:58C-1 to -11. The PLA covers any claim for harm caused by a product, whatever legal theory is used, except a claim for breach of an express warranty.¹ That means a product injury claim in New Jersey is generally brought under the PLA rather than as a separate negligence claim.

The three theories under the PLA

Under N.J.S.A. 2A:58C-2, a manufacturer or seller is liable if the injured person proves that the product was not reasonably fit, suitable or safe for its intended purpose because it had a manufacturing defect, a design defect, or inadequate warnings or instructions.¹²

For warnings, the PLA asks whether the warning is one that a reasonably prudent person in the same or similar circumstances would have provided. It must communicate adequate information about the dangers and safe use of the product.⁴

Defenses under the PLA

Manufacturers often raise defenses written into the statute.

• State of the art. Under N.J.S.A. 2A:58C-3, a manufacturer is not liable for a design defect if, when the product left its control, there was no practical and technically feasible alternative design that would have prevented the harm without substantially impairing the product’s function. In Cavanaugh v. Skil Corp., the Supreme Court explained that the manufacturer must establish the state of the art, and the injured person may then show that the product did not measure up to what was feasible.³
• FDA-approved warnings. Under N.J.S.A. 2A:58C-4, when a warning on a drug, medical device or food has been approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration, the law presumes the warning is adequate. That presumption can be rebutted in limited circumstances, such as when a manufacturer concealed or failed to disclose new information about a serious risk.⁴

Punitive damages

Punitive damages are meant to punish and deter, not to compensate. Under New Jersey’s Punitive Damages Act, they require clear and convincing proof that the harm resulted from actual malice or a wanton and willful disregard of people who foreseeably might be harmed. Negligence, even gross negligence, is not enough. Most punitive awards are capped at five times the compensatory damages or $350,000, whichever is greater.⁵

Product liability in New York

New York has no single product liability statute. Its strict liability rules come mainly from decisions of the Court of Appeals.

In Codling v. Paglia, the Court recognized strict products liability in a case brought by a bystander who was hurt by a defective car that someone else was driving.⁶⁸ Strict liability means the injured person does not need to prove the manufacturer was careless. The focus is on whether the product was defective and whether the defect was a substantial factor in causing the injury.

Design defects and the risk-utility test

In Voss v. Black & Decker Mfg. Co., the Court adopted the test New York still uses for design defects. A product is defectively designed if, had the risk been known at the time of manufacture, a reasonable person would conclude that the product’s usefulness did not outweigh the risk of marketing a product designed that way.⁷

Courts weigh factors such as the product’s usefulness to the public and to the user, the likelihood that it will cause injury, the availability of a safer design, and the manufacturer’s ability to spread the cost.⁷⁸ In Denny v. Ford Motor Co., a case about a vehicle rollover, the Court held that strict liability and breach of the implied warranty of merchantability are separate claims with different standards. A jury can find a product was not fit for its ordinary purpose even if it was not defectively designed under the risk-utility test.⁸

Failure to warn

A manufacturer in New York must warn about hidden dangers from foreseeable uses of its product that it knew or should have known about. It must also warn about foreseeable misuse. In Liriano v. Hobart Corp., the Court held that a manufacturer may be liable for failing to warn even when the product was later modified by someone else in a way that defeats a design defect claim. There is no duty to warn about a danger so obvious that a warning would add nothing, but whether a danger was obvious is usually a question for the jury.⁹

E-bike and scooter battery fires

Lithium-ion batteries power e-bikes, e-scooters, hoverboards and many household devices. New York City’s Department of Transportation warns that fires caused by lithium-ion batteries have increased dramatically in the city, and that these batteries can reignite minutes, hours or even days after a fire seems to be out.¹³ Riders, delivery workers, family members and neighbors in the same building can all be hurt when a battery fails.

New York City has responded with a certification requirement based on safety standards published by Underwriters Laboratories (UL). Under N.Y.C. Admin. Code § 20-610, a business may distribute, sell, lease or rent powered bicycles only if certified to UL 2849, powered mobility devices such as e-scooters only if certified to UL 2272, and storage batteries only if certified to UL 2271. The certification mark must appear on the packaging, on the device, or in documents given to the customer, and on the product page for online sales.¹²

When a battery or charger causes a fire, there may be claims against the company that made the battery, the bike or the charger, and sometimes against the business that sold it. Proving those claims often depends on fire investigation records, the burned remains of the device and the purchase history. Whether the device was certified, and who sold it, can be important evidence.

Vehicle defects

Some crashes are made worse, or caused, by a defect in the vehicle itself. Airbags that fail to deploy or deploy with too much force, tire tread separations, brake failures, seat belt failures, and roofs that crush in a rollover are examples. A vehicle defect claim can exist alongside a claim against another driver, which is why the vehicle should not be repaired, salvaged or destroyed before it is inspected. Our car accident page explains the rest of a crash claim.

Preserve the product and the evidence

The product itself is usually the most important evidence, and losing it can end a case. Defense experts will look for any sign that the product was altered, repaired, mishandled or stored poorly after the injury.

1. Keep everything. Save the product, every broken piece, the charger, the packaging, the manual, receipts, order confirmations and online listings.
2. Do not repair, test or take it apart. Let a qualified expert do any examination under agreed procedures, so the other side cannot claim the evidence was changed.
3. Do not hand it over. Do not return the product to the store, manufacturer or an insurance adjuster, even for a refund or replacement.
4. Document the chain of custody. Write down who has had the product and when. Your lawyer will continue this record so the product’s condition can be proven at trial.
5. Check for recalls. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) lets you search vehicle and equipment recalls by vehicle identification number, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) posts recalls for consumer products. A recall can point to the same defect, but a claim does not require one.
6. Photograph your injuries and the scene before anything is cleaned up.

Deadlines

In New Jersey, a product liability lawsuit generally must be filed within two years of the injury.¹⁰ In New York, the general deadline is three years (CPLR 214(5)).¹¹

New York has a special rule for injuries caused by the hidden effects of exposure to a substance, such as a toxic chemical. Under CPLR 214-c, the three years run from the date the injury was discovered or should have been discovered with reasonable diligence. If the cause of the injury is discovered later, within five years of discovering the injury, the law can allow one more year from discovery of the cause, but only when the technical, scientific or medical knowledge needed to identify the cause was not available earlier.¹⁴

Claims for wrongful death follow different deadlines. Our statute of limitations guide and our wrongful death page explain them.

How Parra Klein handles product liability cases

Product cases depend on physical evidence and independent technical analysis. Our first step is to secure the product and send preservation demands to the manufacturer, the seller and anyone else who may hold relevant records, such as an insurer, landlord, fire department or towing yard. We document the chain of custody from the moment the product comes into our care.

We investigate the product’s history, including recalls, government complaints and similar incidents. We work with qualified engineers and other independent experts to examine the product under agreed protocols, and we identify every company in the chain that may share responsibility.

We work with your treating doctors to document your injuries, from burn care to surgery and rehabilitation. We handle the insurance carriers and corporate defense lawyers so you can focus on recovery, and we prepare each case for trial from the start.

Arlene Parra and Juan Carlos Reyes are fluent in Spanish, and we serve clients in Spanish throughout the case. We meet clients at our offices in Elmwood Park and Union City, New Jersey, and in Manhattan, and we offer remote consultations. There is no attorney’s fee unless we recover money for you.