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Communicator Article p14-16
Communicator Article p14-16
‘Product liability’ is one of those buzz words on unsuspecting manufacturers and exploit the
that scare manufacturers who want to market many, often all too glaring, defects to be found
their products in the United States. It does not in written product materials.
matter if the manufacturer is a domestic or a Despite all the reports on the subject of
foreign company. The long arm of US courts is product liability law, there is relatively little
a threat for anybody who sells products in the available on how manuals and collateral materials
United States. should be structured and what kind of detailed
News reports and articles concerning huge information they must contain to minimise the
sums awarded by US juries in product liability law risk for manufacturers and to insulate them
suits are everywhere. There has also been a lot of as much as possible against lawsuits based on
information published regarding the three legal failure to warn or instructional defects.
theories that make up US product liability law: This article will examine from a
Breach of warranty multidisciplinary perspective the product liability
Negligence dangers arising from poorly written manuals with
Strict liability. missing, incorrect or insufficient warnings. It
The following won’t address these three legal reflects my background as a German mechanical
theories in detail, because anybody desiring engineer who has been practising law in California
clarification on the law can easily and quickly since 1991, and whose pet peeve for about a
search on the Internet for ‘product liability’ and quarter of a century has been having to read the
get a good overview in just ten minutes. incomprehensible instructions contained in many
It is, however, noteworthy that most of the product manuals. I am a member of the American
articles on product liability mention that the National Standards Institute’s ANSI Z535
large majority of product liability lawsuits committee (which deals with warnings and safety
nowadays include allegations of failure to warn information) and ANSI Z535.6 subcommittee
or other instructional defects in the manuals or in (which focuses in particular how warnings
other collateral materials for the product, be it an and safety information should be presented in
industrial installation, power tools or a consumer manuals and other written materials).
product like a pushchair. The allegation of The subject of warnings in product manuals
instructional defects is so commonly found in is quite simple and yet seldom understood
product liability complaints because basically correctly and even more rarely implemented
all manuals have them, and many manuals are properly and sufficiently. The basic rules are:
so poorly written that they are just a law suit 1. If a hazard can be eliminated through an
waiting to happen. Those in the industry need alternative design, it must be so eliminated.
to understand that lawyers are ready to pounce 2. If the hazard cannot be designed out of the
product, it must be dealt with by covering
the hazardous parts (like open chain drives)
Examples or by blocking access to the hazard.
3. If this route does not protect the user of the
It is crucial that manufacturers understand the vitally important role of proper product from the hazard, the manufacturer
warnings. An American tool company did not when it sold its pneumatic grinders. must warn the user of the residual hazard.
A welder’s helper used the handheld tool without guard and possibly with an This means that sufficient warnings based on
improperly rated grinding disk. The disk shattered, struck and killed him. While the the latest standards must be given.
jury found no design defect, it concluded that the manufacturer was negligent In other words, the warnings must be state-of-
and that the warnings were inadequate. It awarded $2.2 million to the widow. the-art. What this means for warnings in manuals
Manufacturers cannot continue sleeping but must wake up to the harsh and collateral materials has long been a subject
realities or they will get burned, like the manufacturer of a robe bought by a of confusion and discussion. Until the ANSI
72-year-old man. When the man warmed up close to a stove the robe ignited standard Z535.6 was published on 10 October
and he suffered burns over 70% of his body, leading to his death within three 2006, nobody really knew what warnings should
weeks. Although the robe met federal flammability standards, the heirs sued and look like. Technical communicators tended to
claimed that the robe was unreasonably dangerous and that the manufacturer improvise. They tried to adapt the ANSI Z535.4
had failed to warn of the danger. The case was settled for $950,000. standard, which sets forth how warnings on
Manufacturers must pay much more attention to their manuals and their machines and many other products should look
warnings in particular. Their technical communicators need to have access to and what they should contain (Figure 1). We
ANSI Z535.6, apply its mandates and in most cases get training to do so correctly. have all seen these types of warning labels on
And in the end, a final review of the warnings by an expert is always advisable. pushchairs, in cars or on washing machines.
While this was a logical approach to dealing with