Defenses and Affirmative Defenses
Product and Tort Defenses
The defense establishes that no safer feasible alternative design or superior warning was available given the scientific and technical knowledge existing when the product was made.
Some jurisdictions treat it as a complete defense and others as evidence only.
Alternative Names:
State of the Art, Technological Feasibility Defense
Why it Matters?
Whether the defense is complete or merely evidentiary is the threshold question and varies substantially, with some states providing a statutory presumption of non-defectiveness for compliant products. The defense requires evidence about the state of knowledge at manufacture rather than at trial, which means historical technical literature and industry practice from the relevant period are the necessary proof. Hindsight evidence of later developments is what plaintiffs use against it.
Frequently Confused with
Frequently asked questions
Is state of the art a complete defense?
What evidence is required?
