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Danger at play: inquisitive children invariably handle the products they encounter in their homes. Manufacturers face lawsuits when they ignore the risks their products pose to kids.

Article Excerpt
What is child's play? Does it involve simply trucks, dolls, paper, and paint--or anything a child can foreseeably "play" with? The answer often depends on whom you ask. Product manufacturers try to narrowly classify toys as the only items that will foreseeably be used by children. They will argue, for example, that if a product is not sold as a toy, then it is not a children's product subject to certain regulatory safety standards. (1)

This selective classification is a common defense that reveals manufacturers' flagrant disregard lot child safety, since such thinking excludes the numerous products that are not intended for children's use but nevertheless regularly and predictably fall into their hands. Household products such as appliances and chemicals are of particular concern, since they are intended for use in environments where children live and play.

When a child is injured by a household product that may be defective, the plaintiff attorney must factor children's curiosity in to the liability equation. The issue becomes whether the child was a foreseeable end-user, not whether the child was an in tended user. An end-user is either an intended or a foreseeable and unintended user of a product.

An attorney trying to determine whether a household product is defective and decide whether to accept a case should adopt a "broad spectrum" approach. A broken part is not the only kind of defect. The term encompasses improper design, improper choice of materials or components, failure to use safety devices, inadequate warnings, inadequate instructions, improper assembly and manufacture, and misleading advertising and marketing. A defect affecting safety may occur during any phase of production, including design, selection of component parts and materials, manufacture, assembly, inspection, packaging, instructive and warning labeling, testing, certification, and promotion. If child safety is not properly addressed in each stage, then the product targeted for home use is arguably defective.

The legal theories that are usually applied in products cases also provide plaintiff counsel a basic framework for locating and proving a defect. Negligence focuses on the defendant's conduct. Its lack of due care creates the hazard. Investigating, evaluating, and proving a negligence claim requires considering the defect from the seller's perspective and showing that a step in the manufacturing, design, testing, packaging, or marketing process was performed improperly.

A breach of warranty action--usually for breach of the seller's implied...

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