What Is Strict Liability?
Strict liability is a legal rule that holds a party responsible for an injury even if no one can prove it acted carelessly. That matters when a neighbor’s supposedly gentle dog mauls your hand, or a brand-new product fails and sends you into surgery. The owner or company will often insist it did everything right, and its insurance adjuster will repeat that line.
Under strict liability, that defense does not end your claim. Good Guys Injury Law represents injured people across Utah in dog injury and defective product cases, and we press these claims against owners, manufacturers, and sellers who hide behind their precautions. You can call our team to talk through whether strict liability fits what happened to you and which parties may share responsibility.
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How Strict Liability Differs From Negligence
Most injury claims rest on negligence, meaning someone failed to use reasonable care and that carelessness caused harm. Utah’s Liability Reform Act defines fault broadly and lists negligence and strict liability as separate categories, along with products liability and the misuse or modification of a product.
A negligence claim asks whether the other side acted carelessly, the core question in many liability disputes. A strict liability claim skips that question and asks whether the dog, product, or activity caused your injuries.
Consider a space heater that a careful manufacturer tested and shipped with a hidden wiring flaw. If the heater starts a fire and burns you, the company’s testing records may not defeat a strict liability claim. We still have to prove the defect caused your burns and document what those burns cost you.
Where Utah Law Applies Strict Liability
Strict liability covers only certain situations, where the law places the risk on whoever is responsible for a dangerous animal, product, or activity.
Dog Injuries Under the State Dog Statute
Under Section 18-1-1, anyone who owns or keeps a dog is liable for an injury caused by the dog, regardless of whether the dog was vicious or the owner knew it. The statute covers injury caused by the dog rather than a bite alone, and its exceptions are narrow. Damages are then determined under the state’s comparative fault statute.
Government agencies and officers are not liable for a certified police dog used carefully under an agency’s written policy. As amended in 2025, the state’s dog injury chapter also excludes certain injuries on the owner’s private property while the dog is reasonably secured within a fence or other enclosure. That exception covers a criminal trespasser or an animal that entered without consent.
Our team checks those limits in every dog bite injury claim.
Defective Products and Everyone Who Sold Them
Under Utah Code § 78B-6-703, products that meet government safety standards when designed and manufactured gain a legal assumption of safety. Courts assume the item is free from dangerous defects because the maker followed official rules. However, injured victims can overcome this starting assumption by presenting clear evidence of a defect.
The state’s model jury instructions recognize several kinds of product defects:
- Manufacturing defect: The product left the factory different from its intended design, such as a helmet with a cracked shell.
- Design defect: The design itself made the product unreasonably dangerous, even when built exactly as planned.
- Inadequate warning: The product lacked the warnings or instructions needed for safe use.
Each type focuses on the product’s condition rather than the company’s intentions.
In Bylsma v. R.C. Willey, the Utah Supreme Court held that retailers, like every other business in a product’s chain of distribution, are strictly liable for selling a dangerously defective product. That rule holds even when the manufacturer is also a party. We look at every seller from factory to store in each defective product injury claim.
Abnormally Dangerous Activities
Courts can also apply strict liability to abnormally dangerous activities that create unusual risks for nearby people. In Branch v. Western Petroleum, the state Supreme Court held a company strictly liable after it ponded toxic oilfield wastewater next to neighboring landowners’ wells. The court found that use of the land was abnormally dangerous and inappropriate given how close it sat to the wells.
If a dog attack or a failed product left you seriously hurt, call Good Guys Injury Law at (801) 506-0800. We will review who owned, kept, made, or sold what injured you.
What You Still Have to Prove, and How We Build the Claim
The state’s model civil jury instruction committee summarizes the Bylsma elements: The product was defective, caused some part of your injuries, and was sold by a defendant in the business of selling such products. A neighbor who sold you a used ladder at a yard sale would not meet that last element. Bylsma also directs juries to compare how much the product and your own conduct each caused the harm, called relative causation, rather than comparing blame.
At Good Guys Injury Law, our team moves quickly on the following steps:
- Preserve the evidence: We secure the product, packaging, receipts, and photos, or the animal control report and dog records.
- Trace every seller: Our team follows the product from the manufacturer through each distributor and retailer.
- Document your injuries: Medical records and bills tie your injuries to the defect or the attack.
- Anticipate the defenses: Alteration claims, government standards, and fenced-property exceptions get tested early.
- Protect the deadline: We confirm which filing deadline applies and when it started running.
That record lets us push back hard when an insurer claims its policyholder did nothing wrong.
How Your Own Share of Fault Can Reduce a Strict Liability Recovery
Comparative fault, which divides responsibility among everyone who contributed to an injury, still shapes strict liability cases. Under Section 78B-5-818, your own fault does not alone bar recovery, but you can recover only from defendants whose combined fault, including fault assigned to immune persons or nonparties, exceeds yours. Each defendant also pays no more than its own share.
Product changes count too. Section 78B-6-705 treats a post-sale alteration or modification that changed the product’s purpose, use, function, or design as fault. If someone removed the blade guard from a table saw before it injured you, expect the manufacturer to argue that change caused the harm.
Suppose a jury finds that a defective ladder caused most of your fall and your own misstep caused a smaller part. You could still recover from the sellers, but your share would be reduced by the portion assigned to you. We build the causation evidence to resist shifting blame onto you.
Utah Deadlines and 2026 Changes That Affect Strict Liability Claims
Section 78B-6-706 requires a product liability action within two years after you discovered, or with due diligence should have discovered, both the harm and its cause. We pin down that date early.
Other claims can follow different deadlines, including the four-year catch-all period in Section 78B-2-307 for relief not otherwise provided for by law. We confirm the right deadline for dog injury and other claims at the outset.
Frequently Asked Questions About Strict Liability in Utah
Does strict liability apply to most car accidents in Utah?
No. Most crash claims turn on negligence, though a defective vehicle part can bring strict liability into play.
Does a store avoid liability if the manufacturer is also named in my case?
No. The state Supreme Court held that retailers remain strictly liable for selling a dangerously defective product even when the manufacturer is a party.
Does the dog statute cover a dog that knocks someone down without biting?
The statute covers injuries caused by the dog, not just bites, so we look at how the injury happened.
Does meeting government safety standards protect a product manufacturer?
It creates a rebuttable presumption against a defect, but evidence showing the product was still unreasonably dangerous can overcome it.
When does the two-year clock start on a defective product claim?
It starts when you discovered, or with due diligence should have discovered, both the harm and its cause.
Can a hold-harmless clause in my purchase paperwork block a defect claim?
Not when a design or manufacturing defect causes injury or death. Section 78B-6-707 voids sales clauses making a buyer or end user cover, excuse, or defend the manufacturer’s liability in that case.
Talk to Good Guys Injury Law About a Strict Liability Claim in Utah
A defective product or an unsecured dog can leave you facing surgery bills while the other side insists it did nothing careless. Insurers for owners, manufacturers, and retailers often move fast to lock in their version of events. Strict liability takes the carefulness excuse away, but you still need proof, the right defendants, and a deadline that has not passed.
At Good Guys Injury Law, our team handles dog injury and defective product claims from seven offices statewide. We investigate the product, the dog, and every business involved, then pursue each party that shares responsibility. We limit how many cases we take so each client gets personal attention from an attorney, and we work on a contingency fee basis.
Call (801) 506-0800 or visit our contact page to schedule a free case evaluation about your Utah strict liability claim.
