Proving That A Drug Is Unavoidably Unsafe
When you instigate a defective product lawsuit, you need to make sure you are not dealing with an unavoidably unsafe product. This is because you may not get any compensation if the product you are claiming to be defective is classified as unavoidably unsafe.
What Is an Unavoidably Unsafe Product?
An unavoidably unsafe product is one that has been designed, manufactured, marketed, and distributed as carefully as possible, but it is still unsafe. This means that, if an unavoidably unsafe product causes you injury, there is no one you can blame for the injury.
Each product has to pass these three major tests for it to be declared as unavoidably unsafe:
It Was Properly Produced and Marketed
The product has to pass the usual test given to defective products. This means it must have been designed, manufactured, marketed, and distributed properly. If these criteria aren't met, then it means somebody must have been negligent in the products production, which means it isn't unavoidably safe.
Consider an example where the manufacturer of a vaccine makes a mistake and ends tainting the vaccine with a poisonous substance. In such a case, the product cannot be labeled as unavoidably unsafe, and you can hold the manufacturer liable for the harm caused by the vaccine.
It Provides More Good Than Harm
An analysis has to be made to compare the benefits and disadvantages of the product. Any product is deemed as unavoidably unsafe if its benefits outweigh the risks. This is a common subject of discussion with drugs since most drugs tend to have undesirable side effects.
For example, a cancer drug that causes stomach upsets can be considered undeniably unsafe since the benefit of treating cancer outweighs the risk of stomach upsets. However, a drug that stops diarrhea but causes cancer isn't unavoidably safe since cancer is a more dangerous health problem than diarrhea.
There Are No Better Alternative Products
The last test is used to determine if there are other products that can achieve the same goal as the one in question but without the associated danger. If there are better alternatives, then the product in question isn't unavoidably unsafe since you can avoid using it by using the alternatives. For example, if a cancer drug causes severe headaches as its side effect, then it cannot be deemed as unavoidably unsafe if there is another drug that can treat the same type of cancer, but without the side effect.
If you are contemplating a defective product lawsuit, consult a personal injury lawyer to help you analyze the nature, benefits, and risk of the product. That way you will know how to counter the arguments of the defendant when they argue that their product is unavoidably unsafe. For more information, contact local professionals like The Kirbo Law Firm.
