In a cause of action for a defective child's car seat, when the car seat malfunctions during normal operation, a legal inference is created that the product was defective at both the time of injury and the time of sale, or at the time it was within the control of the manufacturer or retailer. Therefore, the injured plaintiff may be able to establish a prima facie case for the jury's consideration. The Florida rule which allows a jury to infer that a product is defective when it malfunctions during normal use is referred to as the Cassisi inference.

A West Palm Beach Child Injury Lawyer will advise a plaintiff that in order to establish a Cassisi inference a plaintiff needs to prove the facts essential for the application proof of the malfunction during the normal operation of the product. For example, the evidence was sufficient to support a Cassisi inference of product defect, thus creating an issue for the jury as to a manufacturing defect, in an action brought by the parents of a child who sustained a head injury after allegedly being ejected from a car restraint seat during a collision. Two expert witnesses for the defendant manufacturer testified that the product, if manufactured and used properly, should not have ejected the child, and an eyewitness testified to seeing the child fly out of the car seat and that the child's body was found out of the car seat immediately after the collision.

However, it is not required that the defect be pinpointed with specificity, for a plaintiff to be afforded a legal inference of product defect. Additionally, the plaintiff does not have an obligation to negate alternative grounds of causation other than a manufacturing defect. On the other hand, a plaintiff can include facts that negate other causes of the accident, and point to the product as the most logical cause.

The Florida Child Injury Lawyers of Sharmin and Sharmin P.A. have handled numerous child injury cases involving defective child restraint systems. We will work tirelessly to recover all compensation and damages your child and family deserves for an injury or death due to a negligent motorist. Call Sharmin & Sharmin P.A. at 1-800-74-TRIAL.