Most car accident cases in Alabama focus on driver negligence. But when a vehicle component fails and contributes to the crash or makes resulting injuries more severe, a separate legal theory comes into play: product liability. For Huntsville residents seriously injured in a car accident, understanding how Alabama’s product liability framework applies can open additional avenues for compensation that a standard negligence claim does not reach.
What Alabama Product Liability Law Covers
Alabama’s product liability law allows an injured person to pursue compensation from a manufacturer, distributor, or seller of a defective product when that product caused or contributed to harm. In the vehicle context, this applies when a defective component fails and causes or worsens a crash. Common vehicle defects in Alabama car accident cases include:
- Defective tires with tread separation or blowouts caused by manufacturing flaws
- Airbags that fail to deploy in a collision or that deploy unexpectedly without impact
- Brake system failures including defective master cylinders, calipers, and brake lines
- Steering component failures that cause loss of vehicle control
- Seatbelt failures and defective pretensioners that do not properly restrain occupants
The injured person does not need to prove that the manufacturer was careless. Alabama’s Extended Manufacturer’s Liability Doctrine allows recovery when a product was in a defective condition that was unreasonably dangerous to the user, when that defective condition caused the injury, and when the product reached the user without substantial change from its manufactured state.
How Alabama’s Contributory Negligence Rule Affects Product Liability Claims
Alabama is one of the few remaining states that applies pure contributory negligence. Under this standard, a plaintiff who is found to bear any percentage of fault for their own injuries is completely barred from recovery. This rule applies in product liability cases just as it does in standard negligence claims, and defense teams routinely attempt to establish that the injured person’s own driving contributed to the accident or injury.
A Huntsville car accident lawyer who understands both negligence and product liability law builds the factual record that addresses contributory negligence arguments from the start, because a finding of any fault on the plaintiff’s part eliminates recovery entirely under Alabama law.
How Product Liability and Negligence Claims Work Together in Huntsville Car Cases
A Huntsville car accident involving a vehicle defect typically supports both a negligence claim against the at-fault driver and a product liability claim against the manufacturer or component supplier. These are separate legal theories pursued against different defendants, and they can be combined in the same case. The negligence claim addresses the driver’s conduct. The product liability claim addresses the manufacturer’s defective product.
Pursuing both claims requires different evidence, different expert witnesses, and different legal arguments. Vehicle defect cases require engineering analysis, testing data, manufacturing records, and experts who can explain how the component failed and why it was unreasonably dangerous. Marsh | Rickard | Bryan, LLC has handled serious vehicle defect and product liability cases across Alabama for decades, including cases against major tire manufacturers.
Marsh | Rickard | Bryan, LLC is an Alabama personal injury firm with more than 30 years of experience, a 99% success rate, and over $1 billion in verdicts and settlements recovered on behalf of clients. Free consultations are available.
Pursuing a Product Liability Claim After a Huntsville Car Accident
If you were seriously injured in a car accident in Huntsville and believe a vehicle defect may have contributed to the crash or worsened your injuries, speaking with a Huntsville car accident lawyer about both your negligence and product liability options is the most direct way to understand the full scope of compensation you may be entitled to pursue under Alabama law.
