When you purchase a product, whether it’s a toy, a gadget, a household item, a car part, a medical device, or even a food item at the grocery store, you expect it to perform its intended function without causing you or anybody else serious harm. According to the National Safety Council, however, about 15.1 million people were treated in emergency departments for injuries resulting from consumer products in 2024 alone. Most of the injuries involve everyday products often assumed to be safe. And while the products themselves vary greatly, the life-changing consequences for the injured person don’t. When you’re injured by a defective product, you may ask yourself: Do I have a legal case?

Key Takeaways: Massachusetts Product Liability Cases Product liability cases arise when a defective product causes preventable injury A product may be defective due to a design flaw, manufacturing error, or inadequate warnings The most important evidence is the actual product  — DO NOT THROW IT AWAY Preserving manuals, packaging, warnings, receipts, and photographs can strengthen your case Many cases require engineering experts, forensic testing, and biomechanical analysis In Massachusetts, you generally have three (3) years within which to file a product liability lawsuit Product liability litigation is complex and resource-intensive. Choose a firm with the experience and financial resources to take your case all the way.

The Core Legal Question in a Product Liability Case

Product liability is one of the most complex areas of personal injury law. At their core, these cases ask a simple question: did the product cause a preventable injury because something about it was defective? Attorneys and experts look at three primary categories of defects:

1. Design defects: A fundamental flaw in how the product was designed or engineered, for example, a child’s model rocket that launched, destabilized, and veered off-course causing severe injury to the eye despite the use of eye protective gear. 
2. Manufacturing defects: The design is fine, but something went wrong during assembly, production, or workmanship, for example, airplane doors that opened in mid-flight.
3. Warning defects: The product is well-made, but the manufacturer failed to provide adequate instructions or warn users about foreseeable risks, for example, a portable beverage bottle that exploded due to an intense build-up of carbon dioxide created by the fermenting drink inside, causing serious facial injuries. The manufacturer failed to  inform the consumer that the bottle was not intended to be used with organic material.

The question of foreseeability is interesting and can sometimes make or break a case. The fact is, humans sometimes use products in ways other than their originally intended purpose, some of which can be reasonably foreseen, others not. If you were injured while using a crystal glass to hammer a nail into your wall, for example, that would not be considered a “a reasonably foreseeable use,” so a lawsuit against the glass manufacturer causing your injury would likely fail. However, standing on a kitchen chair to reach something on a high shelf could be seen as a “foreseeable” use, even if it’s not the chair’s primary purpose. 

What Types of Cases Can Be Successful?

One of the reasons product liability cases are so complex is that there is no such thing as a “typical” case. Defects can appear anywhere, in any product category, at any time. Sometimes the case involves something you’d expect, like machinery with exposed moving parts, a safety guard that should have been there but was missing, or a product that overheats and causes burns. Other times it’s something hidden that doesn’t come to light until a forensic analysis of the “mechanism of injury” is conducted. In order to be successful, product liability cases require a deep appreciation for how machines work and how and why they fail. 

Successful cases span a wide variety of industries and include countless different products including, but certainly not limited to:

• Consumer Goods: Furniture that topples over, cribs with dangerous gaps, window blinds with strangulation hazards, toys with choking hazards, sports equipment that malfunctions or fails to protect, and defective lithium-ion batteries.
• Medical Devices and Medications: Glucose monitors that provide inaccurate readings, artificial hips that shed metal shavings into the bloodstream, silicone breast implants that leak, spinal fusion rods used in areas of the spine for which they weren’t approved, medicine that has been tampered with, or inadequately marked dosing cups.
• Industrial and Workplace Equipment: Unguarded gears, blades, or other components in workplace machinery that allow limbs, hair or clothing to be pulled into the mechanism.
• Transportation: Airbags that fail to deploy or deploy unnecessarily, vehicle components that malfunction (such as seat heaters causing third-degree burns), or systems that behave unpredictably (such as a self-driving vehicle that steers you into a tree).
• Food Liability: Severe food poisoning cases can also be considered alongside traditional product liability.

What Evidence Do We Need?

The Actual Product

In addition to medical records documenting the extent and lasting impact of your injuries, the most critical piece of evidence in a product liability case is the offending product itself. Not a similar product, or another of the same product purchased again, but the exact product that caused the injury. 

Our first piece of advice: Don’t throw it away!

Discarding the item can, in fact, be a terminating factor for a product liability case because in most cases experts need to perform forensic testing on the exact unit that caused the injury. People understandably throw things away after an incident, especially if it’s broken, embarrassing, or associated with something traumatic, but product cases depend on being able to examine the actual product that injured you in order to determine the actual cause of the failure. Without it, you’re often forced to rely on “exemplars,” meaning identical products purchased later for inspection and testing. Exemplars can help gain an understanding as to how something is supposed to work, but it’s not the same as examining the exact product that failed, especially when the defect is specific to workmanship or assembly.

The Accompanying Materials 

Beyond the product itself, other important evidence includes: 

• Instruction or assembly manuals and inserts
• The original packaging
• Any warning labels on the product, packaging, or inserts
• Warranty or guarantee information
• Your purchase record(s) of the product
• Photographs of the product before and after it caused the injury

The Chain of Custody

Preserving the product also means preserving its story. You want to be able to show chain of custody, that is, who had it and when, where and how it was stored, who had access to the area, and whether it was altered, repaired, or tampered with. That’s not about being paranoid; it’s about anticipating what the defense will argue. In many product cases, the manufacturer will try to shift blame onto the user, the environment, maintenance, or post-incident changes. Clear documentation helps protect your claim from those arguments.

Expert Testimony

Product liability cases often require hiring “experts”, often engineers, with the scientific knowledge, relevant background, and technical experience to explain to a jury how and why the product was defective and how that caused the injury. This requires serious technical work: repeated testing, engineering analysis, and detailed reconstruction of what happened. These cases can be extremely difficult because it’s not enough to show the product didn’t work as expected. In some cases, you must also prove the “what if”: what would have happened if it had worked correctly? That often requires biomechanical and engineering analysis of forces, movement, timing, and injury mechanics. 

What Can Weaken a Product Liability Case in Massachusetts?

• The biggest weakness is still the simplest: no product. When the product is gone, the defense gains room to create doubt. They can argue the product wasn’t defective, that it was damaged after the incident, or that the condition can’t be verified. However, you may still have a case without it in certain situations, especially when the product is destroyed in the same event that caused the injury.
• If a product was used in a way no reasonable manufacturer could fairly anticipate, a claim of liability may fail.
• Federal preemption is a major hurdle for many implantable medical device cases; if a device was manufactured exactly as the FDA approved it, federal law may block a state-level lawsuit for design defects.
• Identifying the actual manufacturer and holding them accountable across borders can be a significant challenge and weaken your case. Products sold by unfamiliar overseas entities can create practical challenges to financial recovery even when the liability issues are clear, especially if a product has no identifiable manufacturer, no meaningful corporate presence, and no insurance available.            
• Finally, the financial burden of these cases is an important factor. Engineering experts, biomechanical specialists, laboratory testing, and forensic reconstruction can cost tens of thousands of dollars and sometimes occur repeatedly throughout litigation. Law firms that take cases on a contingency basis must have the financial resources to fund the case through trial if need be — often against large corporations with enormous defense budgets. If a firm runs out of money, they may be tempted to settle prematurely. Choose your products liability attorney wisely.

Timelines and Deadlines

In Massachusetts, you generally have three (3) years from the date of injury to file a product liability lawsuit. There is another powerful tool in the Commonwealth known as Chapter 93A, the state’s so-called “consumer protection statute”, that can increase a recovery up to three times the amount of the underlying award. If an attorney can prove that a manufacturer provided inadequate warnings as an “unfair or deceptive practice,” you may be entitled to double or even triple damages plus attorney’s fees under this law. It is critical to speak with an attorney with considerable experience in product liability cases to determine whether this statute applies to your case. 

Contact an Experienced Massachusetts Product Liability Lawyer

Not every personal injury firm regularly handles product liability litigation. It is a specific skill set and often a much more resource-intensive one. As mentioned, the financial burden of these cases is significant, since engineering, testing, reconstruction, and other experts can cost tens of thousands of dollars. Law firms that take cases on a contingency basis must have the financial resources to fund the case through trial if need be. If not, they may be tempted to settle prematurely. Again, choose your products liability attorney wisely.

Product liability cases require:

• technical understanding of how products work
• the ability to thoroughly investigate design, assembly, warnings, and instructions
• an established network to find the right experts for your case 
• significant financial resources to fund expert analysis 
• strategic experience opposing large corporate defendants

If you or a loved one has been seriously injured by a defective product, contact the experienced product liability team at Parker Scheer today. With decades of experience in complex product liability cases, our successful track record speaks for itself.

Product Liability FAQ 

What is product liability?

Product liability is a legal claim that arises when a defective product causes injury due to unsafe design, improper manufacturing, or inadequate warnings.

How do I know if I have a product liability case?

You may have a case if a product malfunctioned or lacked proper warnings and directly caused your injury. An attorney must determine whether a legal defect can be proven.

What counts as a defective product?

A product may be defective if it:

• Was designed in a way that made it unreasonably dangerous
• Was improperly manufactured or assembled
• Failed to include adequate warnings about foreseeable risks

An attorney must evaluate whether the defect directly caused your injury.

What should I do after being injured by a product?

Seek medical attention immediately, preserve the product exactly as it is, keep all packaging and manuals, and contact an experienced product liability lawyer immediately.

1. Get medical care right away.
2. Preserve the product exactly as it is.
3. Keep packaging, manuals, and warning labels.
4. Take photos of the product and your injuries.
5. Contact an experienced product liability lawyer.

Do not throw the product away.

Why is keeping the product important?

The exact product that caused your injury is often the most important evidence. Experts must examine it to determine how and why it failed.

How long do I have to sue in Massachusetts?

You generally have three (3) years from the date of injury to file a product liability lawsuit. This is a strict deadline that must be adhered to.

Can I sue if the product was made overseas?

Possibly. However, cases involving foreign manufacturers can be more complex due to jurisdiction and insurance issues. A lawyer can evaluate whether recovery is practical.

What compensation is available?

Victims may recover compensation for medical expenses, lost income, pain and suffering, and in some cases enhanced damages under Chapter 93A.