Three Defects, One Principle: Products Must Be Safe for Their Use
Texas product liability recognizes three defect theories, and serious cases often plead all of them. Design defects exist when a product's very blueprint is unreasonably dangerous — proven by showing a safer alternative design existed that was economically and technologically feasible without destroying the product's utility, the risk-utility analysis at the heart of Texas design litigation. Manufacturing defects occur when a properly designed product leaves the line deviating from its own specifications — the contaminated batch, the missed weld, the flawed casting — and strict liability attaches without proving anyone was careless. Marketing defects — failure to warn or instruct — arise when known dangers went unmentioned or instructions invited misuse the maker should have foreseen. The chain of responsibility runs from manufacturers through component makers to, in defined circumstances, distributors and sellers; Texas's innocent-seller protections have exceptions our pleadings know well.
The Products That Hurt Texans
Our product docket tracks Texas life: vehicles and components — airbags that fail or fire shrapnel, tires that delaminate at highway speed, fuel systems that turn survivable crashes into fires, roof structures that crush in rollovers, and seatback and restraint failures; machinery and tools whose guards were designed for removal or never designed at all — the augers, saws, presses, and PTO equipment behind our amputation practice; oilfield and industrial equipment that fails under the pressures it was sold to handle; consumer products — lithium batteries and chargers that ignite, space heaters, appliances, furniture that tips onto children, ladders and recreational gear; children's products held to the highest scrutiny — cribs, car seats, toys with hazards small bodies find; and medical devices and drugs, which frequently route into our mass tort practice when defects injure at scale. If it failed and you were hurt, the analysis is worth twenty free minutes — because the difference between “accident” and “defect” is usually an engineering question nobody at the scene could answer.
Evidence: The Product Is the Case
Product litigation lives and dies on physical evidence, and the first rule is absolute: preserve the product — the failed tire, the burned charger, the collapsed ladder, the machine as it stood — unrepaired, unaltered, and in custody. Our protocol establishes chain of custody, engages the right engineering disciplines (mechanical, electrical, metallurgical, fire-cause, human-factors) for non-destructive examination, and where destructive testing becomes necessary, conducts it under agreed protocols that preserve everyone's rights. Around the artifact we build the paper case: recall histories and NHTSA/CPSC complaint databases showing the manufacturer's notice; internal design files, testing records, and risk analyses obtained in discovery — where the memos live; industry standards the product met or dodged; and other-similar-incident evidence proving the defect wasn't yours alone. Manufacturers defend these cases with engineering armies. We hire our own — costs advanced, as always.
Misuse, Modification, and the Defenses Manufacturers Love
Every product defendant reaches for the same shelf: the user misused the product (foreseeable misuse is the manufacturer's design problem — Texas law requires designing for the real world, not the manual's fantasy); someone modified it (post-sale alteration matters only if it caused the failure — and “the guard was removable by hand” is our argument, not theirs); the warnings were adequate (buried paragraph 47 of a manual nobody receives is a jury question we welcome); and the statute of repose — Texas generally bars product claims 15 years after sale — which has exceptions for explicit warranties of longer life and which makes early product identification urgent in older-equipment cases. Comparative fault applies as everywhere, and as everywhere, our answer is reconstruction and human-factors testimony that puts responsibility where the engineering says it belongs.
Why Product Victims Choose McKay Law
Because product cases demand what corporate defendants respect: preserved evidence, credentialed experts, the financial strength to fund both, and a genuine willingness to try the case — the combination behind our Million and Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum credentials. Because our practice integrates the product claim with everything around it: the trucking case where the tire failed, the workplace case where the machine took a hand, the burn case where the battery ignited, and the mass tort route when your product hurt thousands. And because the standard holds against the largest defendants we face: free consultation 24/7 in English and Spanish, every cost advanced, no fee unless we win. They built it defective. We'll build the case that proves it — (903) INJURED.
Product Claims Inside Bigger Cases: The Integration Advantage
Product liability rarely arrives alone, and firms that treat it as a specialty silo miss the leverage. The tire that delaminated lives inside a highway rollover with a trucking company's fault to allocate; the failed guard lives inside a workplace case with non-subscriber and contractor defendants; the battery fire lives inside a premises claim about where and how it charged. Texas proportionate responsibility distributes fault across every contributor — and adding the manufacturer to the verdict form adds a deep-pocketed, well-insured defendant whose presence changes settlement dynamics for everyone at the table. It cuts the other way too: defendants designate manufacturers to dilute their own shares, and unrepresented plaintiffs watch fault flow to an empty chair. Our practice integrates the analysis in every serious case: when a product touched your injury, the engineering question gets asked, the artifact gets preserved, and the defendant map gets complete.
Serving Product Injury Victims Across Texas
From Sulphur Springs, Dallas, Tyler, Greenville, Houston, San Antonio, Austin, and El Paso, McKay Law handles product cases statewide — vehicle and component failures on I-30, I-20, and I-35; agricultural and industrial equipment injuries across the East Texas counties where working machinery fills every operation; consumer product fires and failures in Texas homes; and children's product cases handled with our most protective practice. Free consultations 24/7 in English and Spanish at (903) INJURED, all costs — including the engineering these cases demand — advanced, and no fee unless we win. Preserve the product, photograph everything, and call before anyone “fixes” the evidence.
Damages in Product Cases — Including the Ones That Punish
Product victims recover the full Texas slate: medical care past and future, lost earnings and capacity, pain, mental anguish, impairment, and disfigurement — with product injuries skewing catastrophic (burns, amputations, TBIs) and their damages models skewing accordingly, life-care plans included. Product cases also carry distinctive exemplary-damages potential: discovery that surfaces internal risk analyses weighing injury costs against redesign costs, known-failure databases that predated your injury, and warnings drafted then deleted gives juries the gross-negligence evidence Texas requires — and few exhibits move jurors like a corporation's own math about acceptable harm. Wrongful death and survival claims stand behind the worst outcomes. We build every product case for its full ceiling, because manufacturers price settlements against exactly that possibility.
If a product failure is in your story — even one you assumed was “just an accident” — mention it in your free review. The follow-up questions cost nothing, the engineering analysis is ours to fund, and the difference between accident and defect has changed more of our clients' recoveries than any other single question we ask.
Recalls, Registrations, and What to Do Before Anything Fails
Two habits protect families before injury ever enters the story: register products — especially children's gear, vehicles, and anything with a battery or motor — so recall notices actually reach you, and check NHTSA and CPSC databases when buying used, where recalled products circulate uncorrected. When a recall notice arrives for something that already hurt you, its timing becomes evidence; keep it with the product. And when a product fails without injuring anyone — the charger that scorched the counter, the ladder that cracked underfoot — photograph and report it anyway: consumer complaints are the early-warning system that forces recalls, and the file you open today may anchor another family's case tomorrow. Product safety runs on exactly this loop of documentation and accountability. We're proud to work the courtroom end of it.
The manufacturer's engineers documented every design decision that led to your injury. Ours will read every page. That's the fight in five words — and it starts free.
Your Questions, Answered
Do I have to prove the manufacturer was negligent?
Not for manufacturing defects — strict liability applies when the product deviated from its own specs and hurt you. Design and warning claims follow their own tests, and we typically plead every theory the facts support.
I threw away the product after it hurt me. Is the case over?
Maybe not — purchase records, photos, medical records describing the mechanism, recall databases, exemplar products, and other-incident evidence can sustain claims. But if any part of it still exists, preserve it now and touch nothing.
The product was recalled after my injury. Does that prove my case?
It powerfully supports it — recalls evidence the defect and the manufacturer's knowledge — though defendants argue recalls aren't admissions. Recall timing, scope, and the complaint history behind it become core exhibits.
The manual warned against what I was doing. Am I barred?
Not automatically. Foreseeable misuse must be designed against, warnings must be adequate and reachable, and comparative fault only reduces recovery below the 51% bar. Buried or inadequate warnings are jury questions manufacturers regularly lose.
The product was over 15 years old. Do I still have a claim?
Texas's statute of repose generally bars claims 15 years after sale, but exceptions exist — including explicit warranties of longer useful life — and the sale date itself is often provable later than assumed. Bring us the facts before concluding anything.
Can I sue the store that sold it?
Texas protects innocent sellers, but exceptions apply — sellers who modified the product, made their own representations, or when the manufacturer is insolvent or beyond jurisdiction. The defendant map is our job.
What if the same product hurt many people?
Then your case may belong in our mass tort practice, where shared discovery and coordinated litigation multiply individual leverage. We evaluate both routes and recommend the one that serves you, not the docket.
What does it cost to take on a manufacturer?
For you: nothing upfront, ever. We advance the engineering and expert costs these cases demand and take no fee unless we win. Free consultation 24/7.