Products Liability
Manufacturers, distributors, and retailers have a legal duty to ensure that the products they manufacture and market are safe for their intended use. When that duty is allegedly breached, it’s critical to retain legal counsel who understands the unique technical and legal nuances of these claims. With decades of combined legal experience, JPM Law’s products liability attorneys are well-positioned to provide the strategic counsel and aggressive advocacy necessary to protect your interests at every stage of litigation.
Cases Our Products Liability Attorneys Handle
JPM Law represents clients across the full spectrum of products liability claims:
- Aviation: When an aircraft or its components are alleged to have caused injury or death, the litigation that follows is technically complex and almost always high-stakes.
- Class Action and Multidistrict Litigation: When a defective product injures large numbers of people, individual lawsuits are often consolidated into class actions or multidistrict litigation proceedings.
- Consumer Products: Defective household goods, appliances, tools, and other everyday products give rise to some of the most common products liability claims.
- Food and Beverage Contamination: Claims arising from contaminated or adulterated food and beverage products can involve a single injured consumer or thousands.
- Industrial Products: Heavy equipment, machinery, and other industrial products generate products liability claims, particularly in industries such as oil and gas, manufacturing, and construction.
- Motorized Vehicles: Automotive claims — involving everything from brake failures and airbag defects to fuel system design and roof strength in rollover accidents — are among the most heavily litigated products liability matters in the country.
- Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices: Claims involving medical products raise distinct challenges, including federal preemption arguments, FDA regulatory compliance defenses, and the Daubert standards governing expert testimony. They frequently arise in the context of mass tort proceedings involving thousands of plaintiffs nationwide.
- Toxic Torts: Toxic tort claims arise when plaintiffs allege injury from exposure to hazardous substances — whether in the workplace, in a community, or through a consumer product.
This is only a sampling of the matters our attorneys are equipped to handle. If you would like to discuss a potential claim involving a product or class of products not listed here, please don’t hesitate to reach out. Our products liability team would be happy to discuss your matter.
Why Choose JPM Law’s Products Liability Team?
When you partner with JPM Law, you’ll be working with a team capable of delivering cost-effective, pragmatic solutions for defendants facing a wide range of products liability claims, working to minimize risk and leave our clients well-positioned to protect your business interests.
Laying the Groundwork: We begin by getting to know your business and the product at the center of the allegations. You’ll get a candid assessment of your company’s position — the strengths, the vulnerabilities, and the realistic path forward.
Investigation and Strategy Development: Before we develop a litigation strategy, we do the work. Our attorneys conduct a thorough review of all relevant contracts, communications, and documentation, identifying your strongest arguments and anticipating what the other side is likely to bring. Oklahoma courts have their own procedural requirements and tendencies, and we build your strategy around that reality.
Access to the Right Experts: Our team routinely works with experts in engineering, accident reconstruction, biomechanics, statistics, medicine, vocational rehabilitation, economics, and other specialties to build the strongest possible defense.
Strategic Motions Practice: Drawing on extensive litigation experience, our attorneys leverage motion practice to shape the trajectory of your case and ensure you’re well-positioned to prevail should your matter proceed to trial.
Aggressive Courtroom Advocacy: If your case goes to trial, we’re ready. Our attorneys have extensive experience trying complex commercial matters before judges and juries across Oklahoma at both the state and federal levels, and they know what it takes to win.
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Products Liability: Frequently Asked Questions
What is a mass tort?
A mass tort is a civil action in which a large number of people sue the same defendant — typically a manufacturer, distributor, or retailer — over injuries caused by the same product, substance, or event. Unlike a class action, each plaintiff in a mass tort retains an individual claim and must prove their own injuries and damages separately. When mass tort cases are filed in federal court across the country, they are often consolidated into a single court for pretrial proceedings through a process called multi-district litigation, or MDL, to streamline discovery and pretrial motions.
How does a mass tort differ from a class action?
The key difference is how plaintiffs are treated. In a class action, all plaintiffs are grouped as a single class and represented by one or a few lead plaintiffs — the court’s ruling applies to everyone, and any settlement is divided among all class members. In a mass tort, each plaintiff maintains their own individual case. The injuries may stem from the same product or event, but because the nature and extent of each person’s harm can vary significantly, the cases are handled separately, even when consolidated for pretrial purposes. Mass torts tend to result in higher individual recoveries than class actions, but they also require each plaintiff to prove their own damages.
What is strict liability?
Strict liability is the legal theory at the heart of most products liability claims in Oklahoma. Under strict liability, a manufacturer or seller can be held responsible for injuries caused by a defective product without the plaintiff having to prove that the company was negligent or acted carelessly. The focus is entirely on the product — whether it was defective, whether the defect made it unreasonably dangerous, and whether that defect caused the plaintiff’s injury. Oklahoma’s strict-liability standard traces to the state Supreme Court’s landmark 1974 decision in Kirkland v. General Motors Corp., which established the framework Oklahoma courts still apply today.
What is breach of warranty in a products liability context?
When a manufacturer or seller makes promises about a product — either expressly in writing or impliedly by putting a product on the market — those promises constitute a warranty. A breach of warranty claim arises when a product fails to deliver on those promises, and someone is injured as a result. Express warranties are specific representations made by the manufacturer about a product’s safety or performance. Implied warranties arise automatically under Oklahoma law and include a warranty that the product is of sellable quality and fit for its intended purpose. Breach of warranty claims are distinct from strict liability claims and carry different remedies, so it is common for plaintiffs to assert both theories in the same case.
What are the defenses against a products liability claim in Oklahoma?
Oklahoma law recognizes several defenses that manufacturers and sellers can raise in products liability cases, including:
- Lack of causation: The product defect did not actually cause the plaintiff’s injury.
- Product misuse or abnormal use: The plaintiff used the product in a way that was not reasonably foreseeable.
- Assumption of risk: A complete defense under Oklahoma law when a plaintiff knowingly and voluntarily assumed a risk created by a specific defect.
- Compliance with federal regulatory standards: Under Oklahoma’s 2014 products liability statute, a manufacturer or seller who complied with applicable federal premarket licensing or approval requirements is entitled to a rebuttable presumption against liability for design and labeling claims.
- Seller protection: Sellers who did not manufacture a product are generally not liable under Oklahoma law unless they had a role in the design, testing, modification, or labeling of the product.
No two products liability cases are alike, and the strength of any defense depends on the specific facts of how the product was designed, manufactured, and used. Our attorneys will conduct a thorough review of the facts and identify the strongest available defenses for your situation.
