Some scooter crashes have nothing to do with a driver or a pothole. A folding stem collapses, a brake fails, a wheel separates, or a lithium-ion battery overheats and catches fire, sometimes at home on the charger. New Jersey's Product Liability Act lets injured people hold manufacturers and sellers responsible for defective products.

The three kinds of defect

Under the New Jersey Product Liability Act, a manufacturer or seller is liable if the product was not reasonably fit, suitable or safe for its intended purpose because it (N.J.S.A. 2A:58C-2):

  • Had a manufacturing defect: it deviated from the design or from other units of the same model. Examples include a bad weld, a cracked casting or a faulty battery cell.
  • Had a design defect: the design itself was unsafe, such as a folding latch that can release while riding or a battery pack without adequate protection against overheating.
  • Lacked adequate warnings or instructions: for example, missing warnings about charging, water exposure, weight limits or the latch.

Product liability is generally about the product, not about proving that the company was careless. You don't have to show exactly how the factory made the mistake, but you do need expert proof that a defect existed and caused your injury.

Who can be responsible

  • The manufacturer of the scooter
  • The maker of a defective component, such as the battery, charger or brake
  • The seller or distributor, in some circumstances, especially when the manufacturer is overseas or can't be reached
  • A shared scooter operator, for maintenance failures. Shared scooter claims.

Defenses you should expect

  • Modification: speed modifications, aftermarket batteries or chargers, or removed parts. New Jersey's law expressly bars tampering to change the speed of low-speed electric bicycles (N.J.S.A. 39:4-14.16(c)), and manufacturers will argue any modification of a scooter caused the failure.
  • Misuse: exceeding weight limits, riding through deep water, or using it in ways the maker didn't intend or reasonably foresee.
  • Obvious danger and state of the art: the Act provides design-defect defenses in some situations, such as when no practical safer design was available (N.J.S.A. 2A:58C-3).

Battery fires

Lithium-ion battery fires can cause severe burns, smoke inhalation and property loss, and they can injure people who never rode the scooter, such as family members or neighbors. These claims may involve the scooter maker, the battery maker, the charger maker and the seller. Fire investigators' findings and the remains of the battery are critical evidence. Burn injury claims.

Preserve the scooter

A product case lives or dies on the physical evidence.

  1. Don't repair, discard or return the scooter, and don't let an insurer or the seller take it.
  2. Keep the charger, battery, packaging, manual and receipt.
  3. Photograph the failed part and the serial number.
  4. Write down the model and where and when you bought it.
  5. Check for recalls on the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission's website. A recall can support a claim, but you don't need one to bring a case.
  6. Don't let anyone disassemble it except experts under an agreed testing plan.

Deadlines

Product liability injury claims in New Jersey generally must be filed within two years (N.J.S.A. 2A:14-2). When the defect wasn't apparent right away, New Jersey's discovery rule may affect when that time starts, but don't count on it. For children, special rules apply. Children's scooter injuries.

See our product liability and scooter accidents pages.