When you are injured by a product because of a defective design, you may be able to pursue a product liability claim against the manufacturer.

The manufacturer must design the product with reasonable care to eliminate avoidable dangers. In a negligent design case, you must prove who manufactured the product, that the design was defective, that you were injured, and that the negligent design caused your injury.

In addition, a manufacturer warrants that its products are fit for the ordinary purposes for which such goods are sold (G.L. c. 106, § 2-314). This includes both the uses which the manufacturer intended and those which are reasonably foreseeable.

The following factors are considered when evaluating the adequacy of the product’s design:

• The gravity of the danger posed by the design
• The likelihood that the danger would occur
• The mechanical feasibility of a safer alternative design
• The cost of an improved design
• The adverse consequence to the product of an alternate design

Proving a defective design claim usually requires the opinion of an expert that the design was defective and an alternate design is safer.