Products Liability Tort Reform: Why Virginia Should Adopt the Henderson-Twerski Proposed Revision of Section 402A Restatement (Second) of Torts

Over the past three decades, literally thousands of American products liability judicial opinions have explicitly referred to, and analyzed, section 402A of the Second Restatement of Torts. At least thirty-four states have judicially adopted section 402A, and five other states have passed specific statutes adopting the section.3 Since the landmark products liability case of Greenman v. Yuba Power Products,Inc.4 in 1963, at least forty-five states have now adopted some form of strict liability in tort remedy in American products liability actions.5 Only Virginia and four other states do not recognize a strict liability in tort remedy applied to state prod- ucts liability actions.'