After a warning label has failed to protect someone, a number of different companies or individuals may have responsibility to the victim who was hurt by the device, tool, equipment, machine, or product.
Accidents in Illinois and Indiana often involve some sort of product or good. Car accidents, semi-truck crashes, and collisions involving motorcycles or pedestrians may be caused in part by things like blown tires, brakes, or computerized components. On the job, work accidents can be the result of all sorts of incidents where anything from a hand or power tool, to an industrial vehicle (think forklift) or a piece of heavy machinery or equipment (such as a conveyor belt) is part of the reason for a serious or fatal work accident.
Any catastrophic or fatal accident in our part of the country deserves its own independent investigation into all the reasons why the tragedy happened. Accident victims and their loved ones have a legal right to undertake this inquiry even if employers, insurance companies, and even the police are doing so. See, Investigations After Work Accident: Worker’s Right to Investigate Job Injuries in Indiana or Illinois.
The result of these victim investigations, which often require specific experts in things like accident reconstruction and human factors (ergonomics) may reveal that a good, product, object, or device contributed to the event. Answers may come weeks or months after the accident took place.
List of Companies Who May Be Legally Responsible for Warning Label Accident
Afterwards, there will be a need for legal analysis into these findings, where several different parties may be confirmed to have legal responsibility to the victim and their loved ones for recompense. Sometimes, it will be found that there was a defect in that particular good, product, or object.
In other situations, no defect will be found in the thing itself, but there will be revelations about the failure to warn or instruct in its dangers and proper use in a warning label.
For more, read: Inadequate Warning Labels and Legal Liability for Bodily Harm; Warning Labels and Warning Signs: Liability After an Accident; and Warning Labels: Danger of Serious Injury or Death in Accidents Involving Products.
Those parties who may be liable for remuneration here include the following:
1. Employers’ Workers Compensation Coverage
If the accident victim was working at the time of injury, then many families will first consider the employer’s workers’ compensation insurance coverage. This provides for specific types of monetary coverage for the worker-victim as defined by state statute.
Seeking worker’s compensation does not block the victim from pursuing independent civil claims based upon things like product liability or negligence law. For details, read: The Two Main Differences Between Workers Compensation and Personal Injury Claims for Accident Victims in Indiana and Illinois.
2. Manufacturers
Any company that makes or manufactures a product or good, from a motorcycle to an angle grinder, has the legal duty to make sure that their products are safe and ready for use. They can be held liable under the law not only for defects in the design or manufacturing process, but also for failures in properly labelling their goods with warnings and instructions regarding dangers and proper use.
Labeling defects can form the basis of a civil claim under product liability law if the victim can establish there was no warning given, or that the warning label was insufficient or confusing.
3. Wholesalers
Middlemen in the supply chain, between manufacturers and consumers, include wholesalers. They are in the business of buying things in huge batches at a discounted price. Then, the wholesaler breaks them into smaller amounts and sells them to others (distributors, retailers) for a profit.
Wholesalers can easily discern if there is a lack of warning label or insufficient labelling to prevent harm on anything that flows through their sales system. Accordingly, they may be found liable for injuries that are caused by a warning label deficiency.
4. Distributors
In the supply chain, distributors buy goods from manufacturers for the purpose of selling them for a profit. These are intermediary companies. They help manufacturers get their products out into the marketplace.
While they are not tasked with creating and placing of the warning label at the manufacturing plant, they can be legally liable for goods that go through their services that fail to warn or have improper or flawed instructions or danger warnings.
5. Suppliers
Suppliers are another link in the supply chain. They can be independent companies as well as wholesalers; distributors; or importers. They may buy and sell goods for a profit as they are, or they can add their own spin on things, with offers like “after-market service.” Sometimes, a supplier can make a profit from “drop shipping,” where they buy products and then sell them directly to their buyer’s customers (circumventing the buyer’s direct involvement with the good).
Any company that is involved in the chain of custody of a good or product to its ultimate user has the opportunity to make sure that the warning label exists and is sufficient. Suppliers that fail in this regard may be liable to accident victims that are hurt by products they have sold for a profit, either to other companies or directly in a drop-shipment.
6. Retailers
Retailers are companies that buy goods or products in order to turn around and sell them to the public. They may buy their inventory straight from the manufacturer, or from distributors or wholesalers. They may buy in amazing high volume; big box stores, car dealerships, and superstores are excellent examples of commonplace retailers in Chicagoland and the Hoosier State.
If they choose to place products out for sale to their customers without making sure that there are properly placed warning labels on each item, then they may have legal responsibility for any harm that results.
7. Contractors
In a work environment, there may be several different companies exerting custody or control over aspects of the jobsite. This is particularly true for a commercial construction site, where a large number of construction workers will be on task at the same time who are employed or overseen by various independent contractors or sub-contractors. See, Who Can Be Held Liable for Construction Worker Accidents?
In these situations, if there is a work accident involving a tool or a piece of machinery or equipment, there may be one or more contractors who have legal liability for not protecting victims from inadequate warning labels or the absolute lack of a warning label on the good involved in the incident.
8. Repair and Maintenance Companies
On many industrial sites, there will be companies entrusted with the routine maintenance as well as any needed repairs of various tools, machines, vehicles, and heavy equipment on the site. These repair and maintenance companies often have specific areas of expertise enabling them to do the job much better than the contractors, employers, plant operators, or factory owners. If these companies allow work to occur on anything that has no warning label, or a flawed warning, then they may be liable for workers who are harmed as a result.
9. Independent Cleaning Companies
Finally, housekeeping and scheduled cleaning of industrial workplaces is imperative for job safety. These companies and their crews are invaluable to making sure hazards are removed that can cause harm or death, such as dust or debris on the factory floor or the construction site. See, Workplace Housekeeping and Serious Accidents on the Job: Duty of Care.
It may also be argued that no one has a better viewpoint to make sure that any dangerous product, good, tool, machine, vehicle, or piece of equipment has proper warning labels that those in charge of cleaning and housekeeping duties. Legal liability after a catastrophic industrial accident may well include those entities who have contracted to keep things clean and orderly on the jobsite.
Claims After Accident Involving Product, Good, Vehicle, Tool, Machine, or Equipment
After any accident where a product or good of any sort is involved, investigations by the accident victim and their loved ones may reveal that a warning label claim may be asserted against one or more companies connected with that item.
Unfortunately, in our civil system of justice, the accident victim must not only deal with all the ramifications of the injuries, from pain and suffering, medical treatment, psychological hurdles, and financial burdens, but the victim also has the burden of pleading and proving that the wrongdoers are responsible for the harm and liable to pay monetary damages.
The burden of proof in a product case involving a warning label rests upon the accident victim. The victim has the job of investigating their circumstances; building their case; and asserting their claims for damages against all those who may have legal liability.
This includes providing authenticated and admissible evidence that shows the defendants were aware of, or should have been aware of, the dangers or hazards involved with the product or good and failed to adequately warn the victim.
Also read:
- Deadlines for Injury Victims to File Lawsuits: Statutes of Limitations
- What is Industrial Hygiene? Expert Protection of Workers on the Industrial Worksite
- Inadequate Warning Labels and Legal Liability for Bodily Harm
- Scalding Burns, Surgery, Scarring: Hot Coffee Injuries Exemplify Importance of Adequate Warning Labels
- Premises Liability and Workplace Accidents: Third Party Injury Claims
- Workers’ Compensation and Third-Party Claims for On-the-Job Accidents
- Work Accident in Illinois or Indiana: Workers Compensation Claim vs. Personal Injury Damages.
Those who have been hurt in an accident where some sort of product or good was a part of the event or the cause of injury may have a claim against one or more entities for a failure to warn involving the warning label (or lack thereof) on that item. Of particular importance are all our workers here in Indiana and Illinois, who are famous for working around extremely dangerous things like industrial vehicles, heavy equipment, and power tools. Warning labels are extremely important, and their failures can result in tragic accidents with fatal injuries. Please be careful out there!
