The Legal systems in the USA differs to ours in the UK.
Do I need US Product Liability Insurance
The Legal systems in the USA differs to ours in the UK, Besides being much more costly legal action can come from anywhere, whether it be individuals, businesses or class actions where lots of people take action against you or your company because they have suffered using your product.
When you supply a product, surprisingly it’s not just the item itself that may cause a problem. In the USA or Canada there is everything from its designs, its marketing , misrepresentation or perhaps just because of a particular state statute, different states have different laws.
How a product is used and how the instruction manual is put together can be a problem too, if you are supplying a product it must have the correct instructions for use. The instruction manual should be seen as an extension of the product you are selling and must be accurate. If you have purchased the product in a none English-speaking country and translated with an online translation tool, it might not translate properly and you could give the wrong instructions, professional translations are always important.
The legal system in the USA
The legal system in the USA usually relies on what is know as Strict Liability, in essence this means that even if you have only supplied the product you could be deemed liable for any losses that might occur from it, in the UK and most legal systems throughout the world, you have to be found negligent.
When buying US Product Liability cover its always wise to ensure that the cover you are provided with meets your requirements, having a policy that states cover will only operate if a claim is bought in the UK isn’t going to be much help to you if the case is brought in a North American court, this is the difference between UK and US Jurisdiction.
Insurance to cover your liabilities in the USA must be flexible enough to be scalable with your business requirements, buying insurance cover today knowing that sales to the USA or Canada is going to increase soon could cause you a problem. Its always wise to ensure that you are buying insurance that is scalable as some insurers can restrict the percentage sometimes as low as 15%.
