EXPERIENCED PERSONAL INJURY LAWYER SERVING ALL OF TEXAS
Written by Geoffrey Dashner. Read more about the author.
Most people who contact us after a defective product injury have already made at least one mistake that costs them. They threw the product away. They accepted a store credit. They waited six months before talking to a lawyer and assumed that was fine. By the time they call, some of those mistakes are recoverable — and some are not. This 2026 guide is built around the real questions I see Irving residents ask, and the answers that actually move a case forward.
Product Liability Lawyer Success Guide in Irving
A product liability claim succeeds when you can show that a specific product caused your injury, that the product had a defect when it left the manufacturer’s or seller’s hands, and that the defect — not your own conduct — was a substantial cause of your harm. Under Texas Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code Chapter 82, which governs these claims, the defect can be framed as a manufacturing flaw, a design flaw, or a failure to warn. Each theory carries different legal requirements, and choosing the wrong one — or failing to build evidence specific to the right one — is a quick path to a dismissed case.
Success in Irving means acting fast on evidence, understanding Texas’s proportionate responsibility rules, and working with a lawyer who has handled the particular defect type you’re dealing with. Dashner Law Firm | Irving Injury & Accident Attorney has built its product liability practice around exactly that kind of case-specific preparation. The difference between a claim that settles fairly and one that collapses often comes down to decisions made in the first few weeks after the injury.
What Are the Three Types of Product Defects Under Texas Law?
Texas product liability law recognizes three distinct defect categories, and the legal standards differ meaningfully across each.
A manufacturing defect means the product deviated from its intended design during the production process. A brake caliper that was machined incorrectly, a food product contaminated during packaging — these are manufacturing defects. The product was designed correctly; something went wrong in making that particular unit.
A design defect is different. The entire product line shares the flaw, because the blueprint itself was unsafe. Under Section 82.005 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code, a design defect claim requires the claimant to prove that a safer alternative design existed, was economically feasible, and would have reduced the risk without substantially impairing the product’s utility. Texas does not treat design defect as simple strict liability — you must establish the safer alternative. I’ve seen cases with otherwise solid facts struggle at this stage because the expert retained couldn’t clearly articulate what the alternative design would look like and why it would have worked.
A marketing defect — often called a failure to warn — occurs when the product lacked adequate instructions or warnings about risks that were known or reasonably knowable. This category comes up frequently with pharmaceutical products, industrial chemicals, and power tools. The Consumer Product Safety Commission tracks injury data that sometimes helps establish what risks were known at the time of design or distribution, though each case still requires specific proof tied to your product.
Knowing which defect type applies to your situation determines everything: what expert witnesses you need, what documents you’ll request in discovery, and what standard the jury will apply. Getting that analysis right early is one of the first things we do on any new product case.
How Does Texas Proportionate Responsibility Affect a Defective Product Claim?
Texas uses proportionate responsibility under Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code Section 33.001. A claimant can recover only if their own percentage of responsibility is not more than 50 percent. If a jury finds you were more than 50 percent responsible for your own injury, you recover nothing. If you were 30 percent responsible, your damages are reduced by 30 percent.
This matters enormously in product cases. Defense attorneys routinely argue that the injured person misused the product, ignored visible warnings, or modified the product in a way that caused the injury. I’ve handled cases where the manufacturer argued a power tool user created the hazard himself by removing a guard — which is exactly the kind of argument that, if it lands with a jury, can flip a recoverable case into a zero-recovery outcome.
Preserving the product as evidence undercuts those arguments. If the product is intact, an engineer can examine it and confirm whether the guard was present, whether the warning label was adequate, whether the machine operated as designed. If you’ve thrown the product away, the defense can say whatever they want about its condition at the time of the injury.
Texas’s rules also affect how damages are calculated. Under Section 33.012, your damages award is reduced by your percentage of fault. Medical expense recovery is further limited — under Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code Section 41.0105, you recover the amount actually paid or incurred, not the full billed amount. These are real limitations that affect how much a case is worth, and any honest lawyer will explain them to you upfront.
For questions about broader Texas personal injury principles that intersect with product cases, including how fault allocation plays out across different claim types, our firm handles a wide range of injury matters.
Who Can Actually Be Sued When a Product Causes Injury in Texas?
This is one of the most misunderstood points in product liability. Texas law does not automatically hold every seller in the distribution chain liable.
Under Section 82.003, a seller that did not manufacture the product is not liable unless the claimant can prove at least one of specific grounds — such as that the seller participated in the design of the product, installed or modified it in a way that caused the harm, made an express warranty that was breached, or knew about the defect and sold the product anyway. Simply being the retailer that sold the product is not enough for liability under Texas law.
The manufacturer, by contrast, is generally the primary target. They designed the product, set manufacturing tolerances, wrote the instructions, and made the call about what warnings to include.
There is another layer here that sometimes comes into play: compliance with a mandatory federal safety standard. Under Section 82.008, if a manufacturer complied with an applicable federal safety standard that was mandatory at the time the product was sold, that compliance creates a rebuttable presumption against liability. It does not end the case — the claimant can rebut the presumption — but it is not irrelevant either. A lawyer who tells you that federal compliance doesn’t matter hasn’t read the Texas statute.
Identifying the right defendants from the start saves time and money. Naming a retailer who cannot be held liable under Texas law, then scrambling to add the correct parties later, creates procedural complications and can affect your timeline.
What Deadlines Apply to Product Liability Claims in Irving, Texas?
There are two time limits that apply, and they operate differently.
The first is the two-year statute of limitations under Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code Section 16.003. You generally have two years from the date of injury to file a lawsuit. Missing this deadline almost certainly ends your case permanently, regardless of how strong the facts are.
The second is the statute of repose under Section 16.012(b), which requires a products liability action to be commenced within 15 years after the date the product was first sold. This is a separate limit — it runs from the sale date, not from your injury date, and it can bar a claim even if you haven’t yet discovered the injury. The 15-year period has exceptions, and it does not replace the two-year filing deadline. Both run simultaneously. A product sold 14 years ago that injured you last month still triggers the two-year clock from the injury date — but if you wait more than a year to file, you might also approach the 15-year repose cutoff depending on exact dates.
In practice, the two-year limit is the one most clients nearly miss. People spend months treating their injuries, dealing with insurance calls, and trying to figure out whether a lawyer is necessary. Then they call us with eight months left on the clock. Eight months sounds like plenty of time. It is not, once you account for gathering medical records, retaining and preparing expert witnesses, issuing preservation letters, and filing.
Contact us early. The earlier we get involved, the better the evidence situation and the more time we have to build the case properly.
How Do You Choose the Right Product Liability Attorney in Irving?
The American Bar Association provides resources for evaluating lawyers, and legal directories like FindLaw and Justia let you review attorney profiles. But in my experience, the questions that actually predict whether a product liability case goes well are more specific than what you’ll find in a general directory listing.
Ask about the defect category. If your case involves a design defect, find out whether the attorney has retained engineers or product safety experts in prior cases of that type. Design defect claims under Section 82.005 require expert testimony on the safer alternative design — this is not something you can improvise at trial. Ask how the attorney intends to develop that evidence for your specific product.
Ask about resources. Product liability litigation is expensive before a single dollar is recovered. Deposing the manufacturer’s engineers, retaining credentialed experts, and conducting laboratory testing of the product all cost real money. A firm that handles product cases on contingency — meaning no upfront cost to you, with the firm paid from the recovery only if the case is won — needs sufficient resources to carry those expenses through litigation. Not every plaintiff’s firm does.
Ask about communication. Large injury firms sometimes sign clients and then delegate all contact to paralegals. Find out who will actually handle your case day to day and how often you’ll hear from them.
See what our Irving clients say about working with our firm. Client experience matters as much as legal skill — you’re trusting someone with a serious situation, and you should feel confident in that relationship from the beginning.
For context on our team and how our practice is structured, the About Us section of our website explains our background and approach.
What Compensation Can a Defective Product Claim Seek in Texas?
A product liability claim in Texas may seek economic damages — past and future medical expenses, lost wages, reduced earning capacity — as well as noneconomic damages for pain, suffering, disfigurement, and loss of enjoyment of life. Texas does not cap noneconomic damages in an ordinary personal injury case. The $250,000 cap on noneconomic damages applies specifically to health care liability claims, not to product injury cases.
Medical expense recovery is capped at the amount actually paid or incurred, under Section 41.0105. If your hospital billed $200,000 but your insurer negotiated that down to $80,000 paid, your recoverable medical expenses are tied to the lower figure, not the billed amount.
Exemplary (punitive) damages are available in some product cases, but they require clear and convincing evidence of fraud, malice, or gross negligence, and they require a unanimous jury finding. They are not automatic. Under Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code Section 41.008(b), they are generally capped at the greater of $200,000 or two times economic damages plus up to $750,000 in noneconomic damages.
Serious product injuries sometimes overlap with other claim types. A defective product that causes a brain injury may involve both product liability and premises liability theories if the injury occurred at a worksite. Industrial product failures on job sites sometimes connect to construction accident claims. Certain long-term exposure cases involving industrial materials intersect with mesothelioma and toxic exposure claims. Getting the right legal theories in front of the court from the beginning protects your ability to recover across all applicable channels.
Take the Next Step
If a defective or dangerous product injured you or someone in your family, the time to act is now — not after you’ve tried to negotiate with the manufacturer’s insurance adjuster yourself.
Dashner Law Firm | Irving Injury & Accident Attorney handles product defect and product liability claims for clients throughout Irving and across Texas. We work on contingency — no upfront cost, and we only get paid if you recover.
Preserve the product. Preserve your medical records. Then call us.
Call: (972) 635-4460
Visit our Irving office: 4500 Fuller Dr, Irving, TX 75038
Online: Contact us to schedule a consultation
You can also learn more about our full range of Texas product liability representation and how we approach these cases from start to finish at dashnerlaw.com.
