Product Liability Lawyer in Jonesboro, AR Defects, Warnings and Liability

What makes it a product claim instead of an accident

Section 16-116-101 states the elements plainly. A supplier is liable in damages when three things line up. It was engaged in the business of manufacturing, assembling, selling, leasing or otherwise distributing the product; the product was supplied in a defective condition that rendered it unreasonably dangerous; and that condition was a proximate cause of the harm. The statute then adds the part that surprises people: it applies although the claiming party never bought from the supplier or entered any contract with it. A borrowed tool and a machine bought used both fit.

Real estate and improvements on it are generally not products under the section. A tangible good that is affixed to, installed on or incorporated into real estate is, which is how a water heater, a lift gate or a grain-bin fan stays inside the chapter after installation.

Three years, measured from the injury and not from the purchase

The limitation is short and written without qualifications: all product liability actions shall be commenced within three years after the date on which the death, injury or damage complained of occurs. Section 16-116-203 ties the period to the event rather than to a delivery date, which is a real difference from states that also run a repose clock from first sale. Where the theory is ordinary negligence rather than product defect, § 16-56-105 supplies the same three years.

The object is the evidence, and a warranty return destroys it

Set the item aside and photograph the data plate, serial number, lot code and every legible warning before anything is cleaned. Keep the fragments that look like debris, since a failure surface tells a metallurgist more than the whole assembly does. Do not accept a refund, an exchange or a factory repair, because each of those routes ends with the proof sitting in the possession of the company on the other side. If a landlord, employer, dealer or insurer is holding the machine, send a written preservation request naming the item and its location. Capture the listing page and its safety language with the date visible, because product pages change quietly.

Delta equipment, and the compensation gap behind it

The 2022 Census of Agriculture counts 393 farms in the county, with 91,851 acres in soybeans, 79,950 in cotton, 38,632 in rice and 33,955 in corn for grain. Machinery follows that calendar, and so does the traffic. Highway 63 through town was converted to interstate standards over decades of federal investment exceeding $300 million, with the last 4.8-mile segment between Southwest Drive and Dan Avenue folded into Interstate 555 in November 2021, linking the region to Interstate 55 and Memphis freight.

Behind the machinery sits a gap most people discover after the fact. Arkansas workers' compensation defines covered employment in § 11-9-102 and then excludes agricultural farm labor from it. A hired hand injured by a defective auger may therefore have no compensation claim standing between the injury and the wage loss, which puts the entire weight of the matter on the negligence and product routes.

Who can be named, and why the jury will not be asked to blame a ghost

The 2003 tort act tried to let a fact finder assign fault to people who were never sued, including nonparties identified by a filed pleading. In Johnson v. Rockwell Automation the Supreme Court held § 16-55-202 unconstitutional, reasoning that a provision creating a procedure for litigating nonparty fault invades the rulemaking authority Amendment 80 gives the judiciary. The practical consequence in a defective-equipment case is large. Fault is compared under § 16-64-122 among the claimant and the parties actually sued, so identifying every supplier in the chain early, including the dealer, the installer and whoever last serviced the unit, changes the arithmetic rather than just the caption.

That same opinion also struck § 16-55-212(b), which had limited medical-cost evidence to amounts actually paid, because admissibility is a matter for the court's own rules. That is worth knowing, because the General Assembly returned to the subject in 2025 and put a similar limit in § 16-64-120 as a rule about recovery instead of a rule about evidence. Whether that redraft survives the same objection has not been settled.

What the manufacturer's side does

The first move is usually a polite request to inspect or take custody of the item. Expect a defense built on alteration, a removed guard, deferred maintenance, use outside the manual, and the argument that the hazard was obvious to anyone operating the machine. Expect an inspection protocol to be negotiated, and expect the defense expert to want the failed part in hand before any testing is agreed.

After contact, and what the fee agreement has to say

Early work is inventory work: what the item is, who made and sold it, who has it now, what maintenance records exist and how the three-year period runs against the injury date. Filing a civil case with the Craighead County Circuit Clerk costs $167.50 on the clerk's published list, with the county's page showing $165.00, and the sheriff charges $30.00 to serve a summons on each person named unless several are served in one place. Rule 1.5 governs the fee, requires that it be reasonable under eight named factors, forces a writing above $1,000.00, and where payment turns on the outcome requires the writing to give the percentages and identify the expenses charged against any recovery.