This is an accordion element with a series of buttons that open and close related content panels.
Course Outline
Session 1: The Latest in the Legal Duty to Warn and Instruct
Cal Burnton, Esq. Program Manager
University of Wisconsin
The warnings and instructions provided by a manufacturer serve to prevent accidents and provide the tools necessary to successfully defend a lawsuit. Yet case law often provides no clear answers on what is required to adequately warn and instruct. Cal Burnton will address the development of, and most recent case law-particularly within the last year, relating to a manufacturer’s duty to provide safety information to users of its products. Among the topics will include:
What are your legal responsibilities?
How did we get here and the theories of liability: negligence/strict liability
Factors in determining whether a duty exists
Open and obvious hazards and warnings
Foreseeable/unintended/unforeseeable Misuse
Modifications of products and their impact on your responsibility
Adequacy of warnings
Causation: Did the failure to warn cause the accident?
Post-sale duties: Warnings/retrofit/recalls
ANSI Z535 Standards for Manuals
How to improve your product and organization
This session will give you up-to-date information on recent trends, cases and theories in product liability law.
Session 2: Managing Recalls and their Communications for Large, Installed Equipment: Risks, Realities, and Readiness
Chris Harvey
Senior Vice President, Product Innovation & Industry Engagement
Sedgwick
Product recalls involving large, complex, and installed equipment present unique challenges compared to other product categories. Unlike consumer product recalls, these events often originate from isolated field issues and can escalate into prolonged, highly visible efforts that consume significant organizational time, disrupt customer operations, and result in lasting financial, regulatory, and reputational impact.
Equipment deployed in hospitals, factories, energy infrastructure, and other critical environments cannot be easily removed or replaced, while regulators are applying increased scrutiny to how companies identify affected assets, communicate risk, and execute corrective actions across long product lifecycles. This session will examine the evolving recall landscape for large equipment and outline practical steps organizations can take to strengthen preparedness, communications, reduce exposure, and turn recall readiness into a strategic capability.
Session 3: On-Product Warnings: ANSI Z535.4 and ISO 3864-2:
Angela Lambert
Head of Standards Compliance
Clarion Safety Systems (Milford, Pennsylvania)
Chair, ANSI Z535.1 Safety Colors
Liaison Representative for ISO/TC 145 to ISO/TC 283
Member, ANSI Z535 Committee
Member, U.S. TAG to ISO/TC 145
Member, U.S. TAG to ISO/TC 283
“Failure to warn” and “inadequate warnings” continue to top today’s product liability allegations. Angela Lambert will provide an overview of the ANSI Z535.4 and ISO 3864- 2 standards and how they can be used as the foundation for effective labels and instructions. The session will include a discussion on the most recent updates to the standards (including ANSI Z535.4, ANSI Z535.7, and ISO 3864-2) and warnings considerations related to digitalization and automation, as well as a ‘label workshop’ to analyze real-world scenarios.
Session 4: Reputation, Risk and Responsibility: Social Media for Modern Manufacturers
Beth PopNikolov
CEO Venveo Inc.
Product communication no longer stops at warnings and manuals. Today, safety messaging also lives on social media, jobsite photos, and customer-generated content. This session explores how manufacturers can use social media to reinforce safety culture, clarify product use, and manage risk when conversations about their products happen online.
Session 5: Developing Warnings and Instructions for Product Safety
Mark Hickok, MS, CPSP, CFEI
Vice President, Safety and Regulatory
Milwaukee Electric Tool Corporation
Mark Hickok will provide a real world and practical approach for developing instructions and warnings. He will provide guidance of key areas for consideration while creating product materials, and how to integrate product safety into your business's product development processes and the product’s life cycle. The importance of a culture of safety at every step of the manufacturing process will be highlighted. The session will cover:
Integrating product safety into your product line
Warning and Instruction Development considerations
Practical considerations in the development of warnings and instructions
Having adequate and effective warnings and instructions is no easy task. This session will provide the keys to drafting communications to meet a company’s duty to warn. It’s a how-to course you won’t want to miss.
Session 6: From Intake to Verdict: Product Liability Cases From The Perspective of a Plaintiff’s Lawyer
Kevin Martin
Martin Law Offices SC
During this presentation, you will learn about how a plaintiff’s lawyer analyzes product liability cases from intake to verdict. Topics will include preserving the product after the index incident; spoilation; testing; whether to file suit in State or Federal court; who to sue; discovery; comparative fault; and mock juries. The presenter will draw from real-world experiences on each issue, which includes providing a factual background and application of legal principles.
His practice areas include medical malpractice, long term care negligence, general liability, products liability, and wrongful denial of insurance benefits.
Session 7: Considerations for Evaluating Warnings and Instructions
Jared Franz
Senior Consultant
Rimkus
Ann Arbor, Michigan
A manufacturer has more than the duty to warn; it must adequately warn with effective safety instructions and warnings. There are many ways in which safety information can be evaluated – how can you choose what works for you? Jared Frantz will present several evaluation methods and provide insights for what kinds of questions evaluation can help answer. Practical applications will be discussed through case studies.
Session 8: Corporate Messaging and Product Liability in the Age of Nuclear Verdicts
Emily Fisher
Trial Behavior Consulting
The number of “nuclear verdicts” (that is, jury awards over $10 million) have reached record highs in recent years. The increase in high damage numbers have been driven by societal shifts, aggressive plaintiff lawyer tactics, and corporate mistrust and are impacting insurers and businesses across numerous industries. These verdicts are becoming particularly more common in personal injury and product liability cases. Therefore, it is more important than ever for corporations to understand how to combat such claims. During this session, we will discuss in more detail the factors that have led to these changes and identify ways in which companies can protect themselves more effectively.
