In the usa, a country where litigation borders on being a national hobby, consumers do not need much encouragement to sue.This is generally good for the ever-expanding US legal profession, but a potential nightmare for manufacturers with export designs on the massive US market.And if some of the horror stories wending their way over from the USA are anything to go by, falling foul of product liability legislation is not difficult.

A recent Department of Trade and Industry publication cites several examples which are designed to shock exporters into taking notice.For example, the DTI points to one recent US court ruling which said safety pin manufacturers must print a warning on their products stipulating the dangers if the pins were swallowed while open.

Likewise, an American schoolboy successfully sued a window manufacturer.

He had apparently fallen from the open window while, as the DTI put it, 'exhibiting his posterior to passing colleagues'.

Again, the court ruled that the manufacturers had not provided sufficient warning of the potential dangers.Many UK products are exported to the USA - figures from the DTI show the USA as the biggest non-EU consumer of British goods.

In 1993, non-oil exports to the USA were worth some £13 billion to British industry, up by nearly 26% on the previous year.

Indeed, Britain is the seventh biggest exporter to the USA.But when products go wrong in the USA, manufacturers can be hit with crippling compensation bills.

American lawyers concede that US juries frequently get a little carried away - especially when doling out punitive damages.

Indeed, the potential problems for exporters are so complicated and numerous that the DTI runs a series of seminars designed to educate and warn British manufacturers of the pitfalls on the other side of the Atlantic.And the DTI ringer in this field is, not surprisingly, a US lawyer.

Scott James has been practising in the City for the last 16 years.

From 1985 he has been with the Minneapolis-based international firm Faegre & Benson, specialising almost exclusively in advising British clients on how to export prudently to the USA.Mr James began advising the DTI's 'North America now' campaign nearly three years ago.

In 1993, the firm launched its own series of workshops for clients and prospective clients.

'Product liability in the USA', he warns, 'is a difficult enough subject for American manufacturers and suppliers to deal with.

It is even more unusual and strange for British manufacturers to understand and to address successfully.'While many of the more outlandish stories of product liability litigation, according to Mr James, are either apocryphal or involve more complicated facts behind the headlines, there is still plenty of room for concern.'British manufacturers have an understanding and an appreciation of product liability as an issue, but not in terms of what it actually means in practice,' says Mr James.

In many ways, it pays to plan to be sued.

A degree of forethought could significantly reduce punitive damages dealt out to any British exporter caught up in a product liability trial.Mr James points to the implications of pre-trial discovery as an example.

Exporters to the USA must have a corporate policy covering all areas of 'document creation, document retention and document disposal'.Faegre & Benson has set out a three-point plan designed to help British manufacturers avoid large payouts in the USA.

It starts with a review of basic manufacturing practices and systems.One of the main areas of investigation by American plaintiff lawyers is the history of complaints handling.

If consumers have complained persistently about a certain product and the manufacturer has done little in response, then the plaintiff's lawyers have an armoury of ammunition to take to a jury.The Faegre & Benson team then study contractual liabilit y as it pertains to warranties and indemnities.

And the advisers tackle one area which many manufacturers get wrong - product literature.

Mr James illustrates: 'I ask manufacturers: "When you make a statement about the product, have you actually tested it?" Many times they will answer: "No, it just seemed a good thing to say because that is what our competitors say." You do not have to be a genius to give advice as to whether or not that is effective.'The firm works with a group of American technical writing consultants who aim to ensure that product literature is not too complicated for average US consumers.

Mr James points out that average reading levels in the USA - currently pegged at around that of an 11 year old - are significantly lower than they are in Britain.This aspect of product liability in the USA has far more serious complications than first appears.

Under the concept of strict liability, US law stipulates that if the product literature is unreadable - for example, the print is too small or the language is too complicated - then that literature is defective and ultimately the product itself could be ruled defective.British manufacturing clients of Faegre & Benson often throw up their hands and ask the legal team to rewrite completely all their product literature.Although Faegre & Benson can provide the full export distribution agreement service beyond product liability to clients, Mr James maintains his firm is not trying to carve domestic lawyers out of the market.

'Much of what we do regarding advising on exporting to the USA can be done equally well by solicitors.

But there is about 20% [of the advice equation] regarding product liability which is very particular and can be costly.'