Law Commons^™

An Overview Of Ohio Product Liability Law, Stephen J. Werber

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

Enactment of the Ohio Product Liability Act (the “Act”), which took effect on January 5, 1988, created an exclusive statutory basis for all tort based product liability claims. The statute, while eliminating the term “strict liability in tort,” is primarily a codification of preexisting common law. The Act provides that product liability claims may be predicated on one of four theories: defects in manufacture or construction; defects in design or formulation; defect in warning or instruction, and failure to conform to representation. Each of these theories had previously been recognized by the courts. For example, the requirements for a cause …