Construction Warranty law, product liability recommended information sources

[Leyeden]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Ohio

could anyone point me in the direction for information on something i'm not real sure what you would classify as. I am in the electrical contracting industry and considering starting my own business and i am trying to research law around liability for defects and how something is considered a defect. in Ohio a contractor must give a 1 year warranty and a contract in Ohio is valid for i think 8 yrs or so where a contractor would be responsible for what i would call warranty work for 8 years from what i have been reading (i'm looking into this more in Ohio Revised Code).

What would you call the things i am looking to research?
Do you have any material you would recommend for me?
I want to figure out how something is considered a defect, when is the contractor responsible for a problem?
I want to learn more about what i would call liability law(we mess something up or someone thinks we messed something up) for contractors.

i am going to consult an attorney before starting a business, but want to learn as much as i can now so i know what to ask them about.

any advice is greatly appreciated, i'm not looking to learn this stuff over night it will probably be several years before i start a business.

thanks

 

[adjusterjack]

You'd be better off reading comprehensive resources like those at the top of the following search results rather than getting bits and pieces from strangers on the internet.

 

[LdiJ]

You'd be better off reading comprehensive resources like those at the top of the following search results rather than getting bits and pieces from strangers on the internet.

I agree. He clearly needs beginners education on liability and defects and that is more than any forum can do for him. I started to try to write up a basic explanation of defects and liability and realized that I simply could not do it without writing a book.

However, I did think of one basic thing to explain. A defect is a mistake.

It could be a mistake in engineering a product.
It could be a mistake in manufacturing a product.
It could be a mistake in assembling a product.
It could be a mistake in installing a product.

Different people would be responsible for different mistakes.

It would not be a defect if no mistake happened and a consumer/end user simply broke it by doing something abnormal with it.

It you use a doorknob as a stepping stone to get something hidden above the door and the doorknob breaks, its not a defect...you just broke it.

 

[adjusterjack]

Seems a bit silly that my link to search results was deleted when all the OP has to do is Google 'Ohio Construction Defect Law' and come up with the same results that I came up with.

smh

 

[Leyeden]

You'd be better off reading comprehensive resources like those at the top of the following search results rather than getting bits and pieces from strangers on the internet.

i agree, i was asking for references to those resources like the "ohio construction defect law" you posted and any books or other types of literature you might recommend. thanks

 

[Leyeden]

I agree. He clearly needs beginners education on liability and defects and that is more than any forum can do for him. I started to try to write up a basic explanation of defects and liability and realized that I simply could not do it without writing a book.

However, I did think of one basic thing to explain. A defect is a mistake.

It could be a mistake in engineering a product.
It could be a mistake in manufacturing a product.
It could be a mistake in assembling a product.
It could be a mistake in installing a product.

Different people would be responsible for different mistakes.

It would not be a defect if no mistake happened and a consumer/end user simply broke it by doing something abnormal with it.

It you use a doorknob as a stepping stone to get something hidden above the door and the doorknob breaks, its not a defect...you just broke it.

thanks, i'm looking for references to the literature, not trying to get an explanation to it all here

 

[Leyeden]

However, I did think of one basic thing to explain. A defect is a mistake.

It could be a mistake in engineering a product.
It could be a mistake in manufacturing a product.
It could be a mistake in assembling a product.
It could be a mistake in installing a product.

Different people would be responsible for different mistakes.

It would not be a defect if no mistake happened and a consumer/end user simply broke it by doing something abnormal with it.

It you use a doorknob as a stepping stone to get something hidden above the door and the doorknob breaks, its not a defect...you just broke it.

the main question i am interested in right now is the following.
in the electrical industry we have written standards for the basics of the industry, but some parts to be honest are what some people would call "a little experimental" and there are not standards for everything in the industry.

when a problem happens and there is no all encompassing standard for the installation even though the job is engineered but the engineering did not specify what to do in a certain part so the contractor does something that he does for another similar installation, how is liability determined?

i would think the contractor is liable, but then again they did not do the design and followed the design.

every project is different, so technically every project is an experiment figuring out how all the different variables will react with each other even if you follow standards. our standards are constantly changing because of problems like buildings burning down even when standards were followed. i guess could you also recommend literature for law on unforeseen circumstances

thanks again any direction is appreciated

 

[Leyeden]

so would you recommend literature like

-Construction Defect Claims and Litigation (Construction Law Library)
by Michael T. Callahan, Lee R. Connell

or

-Understanding Products Liability Law (2013)
by Bruce L. Ottley, Rogelio A. Lasso (Paperback)

or something else?

thanks for the "Ohio Construction Defect Law", i'm finding some good information there



for anyone that stumbled across this looking for what i am looking for.
Ohio statute of repose is something very interesting to me and something i had no idea about, it is a statute of limitations on tort claims for liability for construction defects and personal injury it's 10 years in Ohio