Most product liability cases arise because of manufacturing defects, design defects, and failure to warn consumers of possible harm. A manufacturing defect means that a single product was produced in a faulty manner that makes it prone to cause injury. For instance, let’s say a manufacturer produces 1,000 lawn mowers and 998 operate perfectly. However, in the building process, two lawn mowers were not put together properly. Those two lawn mowers have a manufacturing defect.

A design defect is different. This means that the product itself is flawed in its creation. A lawn mower with a design defect means that all such mowers have the potential to cause harm because of an inherent flaw in the creation of the product. Take the example of a swimming pool that places the diving board near a sloping floor that is not deep enough for divers. This design defect means that a certain number of divers will hit their heads on the pool floor when they dive into the pool.

The last type of defect results from a failure to warn consumers of possible harm that can result from foreseeable misuse of the product.