State law

Under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), constitution, statute, regulation, rule, common law, or any other state action that has the force and effect of law.

State of the art/development risks defence

Defence whereby a ‘producer’ can avoid Consumer Protection Act 1987 liability. If, at the time of supply, the state of scientific and technical knowledge was not such that a producer of similar products might have been expected to discover the defect if it had existed while there were products under his control, there will be no liability under the Act. It is no defence to show that the producer was unaware of the risk because of no prior accidents. The defence only applies when there has been some technical or scientific advance since the time of supply that subsequently enable the defect to be identified (Abouzaid v. Mothercare (UK) Ltd (2001)). The producer must show that the defence applies.