Product Liability and Dangerous Toys

15 Feb Product Liability and Dangerous Toys

One of the reasons that product liability law exists is because consumers are sometimes sold products that are dangerous right off the shelf. Some of the most egregious cases of a company being negligent by putting a product out on the market that pus their customers and danger involve children. One of these cases happen in the 1990s and involved one of the most popular toy lines of all time and one of the largest toy manufacturers in the world. The case is a good illustration of how product liability lawsuits are oftentimes not at all frivolous, despite what the media sometimes leads people to believe.

The Cabbage Patch Snacktime Kids Doll was released in the 1990s. Throughout the 1980s, the Cabbage Patch line of toys had established themselves as among the favorites of young children. The doll that was released in 1996 was designed to allow kids to feed it small plastic snacks that the doll would eat with a mechanical mouth. This mouth was designed in a way that made it inherently dangerous. This is one of the foundations of product liability law. A product that is dangerous by design is one for which the manufacturer can be held liable. In the case of the doll, the mouth didn't operate via an on off switch. Instead, it simply started working whenever anything was stuck in it. This ended up in situations where children had serious damage to their scalp because of getting their hair caught in the doll's mouth. The doll's mouth was also powerful enough to hurt a child's fingers into cause other injuries.

The product was voluntarily recalled by the manufacturer and those who purchased it received a refund. This is but one example of toys that have been released on the market that have proven to be very dangerous to the children they were intended for. A product liability attorney is the person you'll need to talk to if you believe that a product was advertised in a way that was deceitful, or if you believe the product was manufactured in a way that made it dangerous. These attorneys can look at your case and see if the manufacturer is indeed liable for the injuries you suffered. In some cases, it may only be a matter of getting a refund but, it's still worth it to bring a problem with the product to light.