June 2026 Course on Product Liability from the University of Wisconsin
Are you looking for training for you or your team on product safety and liability, including the latest best practices and standards updates?
Each summer, the University of Wisconsin offers a professional development course on on-product warnings and instructions. This year’s event, “Using Warnings and Instructions to Increase Safety and Reduce Liability,” is coming up shortly in June and is not-to-be-missed. It’s designed especially for engineers, technical writers, product safety specialists, insurance groups and others responsible for creating or reviewing warnings and instructions.
This year’s event will be hosted virtually over Zoom or Canvas over several days – from June 8 to 11, 2026 – with different safety and liability experts featured each day. If you are looking for other options, you will also have the chance to attend a different in person product liability conference hosted by UW later in the fall.
Clarion Safety's Presentation: A Focus on ANSI, ISO, and Labeling Best Practices
Clarion Safety’s director of standards compliance, Angela Lambert, will be one of this year’s presenters, with an in-depth session on understanding key standards for safety labels and signs in the U.S. and internationally (focusing on ANSI Z535, ISO 3864-2, and the EU Machinery Directive), label content elements, and label material/durability requirements. A full scope of Angela’s course is detailed below:
The Role of On-Product Warnings in Safety/Liability
Why are safety labels important?
Elements of an effective label
Legal duty to warn and adequate warnings
How risk assessment, labels, and manuals are related
Key Standards and Requirements for Labels in the U.S. and Internationally
Levels of standards and a legal perspective on standards
ANSI Z535 standards, including guidelines for label structure/ content, color, translations, durability/ materials, and complex messaging
ISO 3864-2 standards, including symbol use and design, and wordless label format options
Standards harmonization
EU Machinery Directive
Winning Strategies and Latest Trends
Latest updates to the ANSI/ISO standards
The evolution of label formats
Analyzing your intended audience
A systems approach to safety labeling
Digitalization and automation considerations
Team-Based Workshop Activity
Evaluate warnings
Develop recommendations
Team presentation of findings
Additional Course Information
Topics explored by the other experts will include legal responsibility and duty to warn/instruct, managing recalls, modern jury verdicts, and evaluating warnings and instructions.
The sessions on June 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th will all run from 8:30am-12:30pm Central Time, and will be hosted over Zoom. To register, you can visit the University of Wisconsin’s course overview website.
