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It might seem like the manufacturer could be held responsible. Indeed, according to the law, if a manufacturer has learned about a defect in a model that had come from that manufacturer’s plant, then the executive in charge or that particular plant should send a notice to all of the Canadians that have purchased the identified vehicle.
Weaknesses in the existing law
Sometimes a notice that has been sent out gets lost in the mail, and does not arrive at the intended address. Often, a notice reaches the appropriate address, but gets ignored by the person that has received it.
A dealer is not breaking the law, if he sells a customer a car with a defect. In fact, if that defective component or accessory fails to comply with the legal safety standards, the buyer must face the consequences. If the buyer gets a ticket, then he or she must pay the fine, or perhaps attend a series of scheduled classes, which were designed for those who have committed a traffic violation.
Methods for dealing with the law’s weaknesses
The website Transport Canada has posted a list of all the recalled cars. Manufacturers can be sued for any one of 3 types of defects in a given component.
What are the 3 types of defects?
Design: Results from a mistake made during the designing of a certain part. In other words, designers must pay attention to more than how something looks. Designers must make sure that a good-looking part can carry out its intended function, and can do it safely.
Manufacturing: This defect diminishes a car’s ability to perform as it should. It gets introduced into the vehicle while it is being assembled within the plant. A good manufacturer should have a suitable quality control system in place, in order to note the existence of such defects.
Failure to warn the customer: It is not enough to issue a warning; that warning must be one that cannot be overlooked or ignored by the person that plans to use the defective product. It should be worded in a way that could be easily understood by the typical customer.
What happens upon discovery of such a defect?
The mere discovery of a defective component does not provide the buyer of that same product with grounds for suing the manufacturer. The defect’s existence must be linked to an injury sustained in a given accident. Only then would the buyer of the defective product have grounds for suing the manufacturer. By hiring a Personal Injury Lawyer in Cambridge that has been injured by a defective part can more easily produce evidence of how that defect contributed to occurrence of an injury-causing accident.