Lawsuit!: Reducing the Risk of Product Liability for Manufacturers

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Entering into Litigation

When a company receives a formal complaint from the court, it becomes official that they are being sued, and they enter into litigation. In the complaint, all parties involved will be identified, including the plaintiff and any other codefendants, and the complaint will identify the nature of the case or complaint. The defendant (manufacturer) will be given a specific number of days to respond.

The attorney for the manufacturer will respond to the complaint by filing an answer to the allegations made in the complaint. The defense attorney must either admit or deny the allegations in the complaint, or state that the defendant has insufficient knowledge to admit or deny the charges at that point. If no answer or other responsive pleading is filed within the time allowed by law, the court may enter a default judgment in favor of the plaintiff.

The next stage in litigation is discovery, allowing all parties to request information from the other that is relevant to the action. Discovery will consist of a court order to answer a written questionnaire (interrogatories) within a specific number of days, which will include or be followed by the request for documents, and ultimately a number of individuals involved with all the parties will be questioned under oath (depositions), and these questions and answers will be recorded and could then be used as evidence in the trial.

In answer to the plaintiff's complaint, the defendant may, instead of filing an answer, ...