Warnings experts assess whether a warning identified the hazard, communicated severity, and instructed on avoidance, applying standards such as ANSI Z535 and human factors principles.
Opinions address adequacy and sometimes causation.
Alternative Names:
Warnings and Labeling Expert, Product Warnings Expert
Why it Matters?
The causation opinion is where these experts are most vulnerable, since testimony that an adequate warning would have changed the plaintiff's behavior rests on assumptions about hypothetical conduct that the literature does not support and the plaintiff's own testimony frequently contradicts. Deposition establishing that the plaintiff did not read the existing warning is the standard defense, since it forecloses the argument that a different warning would have been heeded.
Frequently Confused with
Frequently asked questions
Where is warnings testimony most vulnerable?
What is the standard defense?
