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'Encyclopedia' of package-failure law

Guidance about package-failure litigation is offen tedious and dull. But a new compendium describes cases that can help manufacturers understand their responsibilities and avoid problems.

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Tomes about packaging and the law are too often a “snooze.” Usually, it’s because the authors must write in “legalese,” so that what they write stands up in court. Packaging Forensics: Package Failure in the Courts mostly defies this tradition. Edited and written in part by consultant Walter Stern, this handsomely bound 300-page volume is not only eminently readable but usually approaches its subject from the packaging perspective, not the legal one.

Published by Lawyers & Judges Publishing Co. (Tucson, AZ), this volume approaches packaging-related litigation from the perspective of packaging professionals, whether they be an expert packaging witness or the personnel responsible for packaging at manufacturers. Sure, some sections are penned by lawyers; even so, they usually report on specific cases by identifying both the positives and negatives of both defendant’s and plaintiff’s cases.

This use of appropriate “case” histories helps make the copy more readable. Stern’s introduction examines in detail the role of a packaging expert in helping to prepare a case. “No packaging expert has ever lost or won a case,” he emphasizes, noting that the expert must be seen to be “an impartial forensic examiner.”

Stern begins with a general discussion of package failure cases in courts, explaining some of the obvious problems (glass breakage, cap malfunction, label information shortcomings) and others that are more unusual (plastic bottle ruptures, multipack failures, hold-down devices in set-up boxes). He concludes by offering a succinct six-point checklist for manufacturers seeking to avoid package litigation.

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