First Toyota Acceleration Lawsuits Head To Court

SANTA ANA, Calif. — Dozen of lawyers spoke glowingly about their courtroom credentials Thursday as they tried to persuade a federal judge to give them a lead position battling Toyota Motor Corp. in the hundreds of lawsuits surrounding its vehicles' sudden acceleration problems.

About 60 lawyers pinned their hopes with U.S. District Judge James Selna, who said he would make his decision by Monday. At stake is potentially millions of dollars that a judge can appropriate for attorneys if a settlement or award is reached.

More than 320 lawsuits have been filed in federal and state court against the Japanese automaker after it began recalling about 8 million vehicles because of acceleration problems in several models and brake glitches with the Prius hybrid.

A judicial panel last month consolidated the federal cases in Orange County, Calif., and chose Selna to preside over them.

While most of the plaintiffs' attorneys boasted of their experience handling major product liability cases, some shared with Selna their ability to speak fluent Japanese, and one attorney said he was a licensed engineer, which seemed to meet some of the judge's criteria.

"Technical savvy is a measure of qualification for the leadership roles," said Selna, who added that preparing for trial was a "daunting" yet "doable task."

Outside of court, several attorneys who were recommended by a three-member panel of plaintiffs' lawyers declined comment about their prospects of being chosen as lead counsel, but some attorneys during the hearing highlighted how important Selna's selections will be for the case.

"The leadership you appoint here is going to dominate the case," said one lawyer, Daniel Becnel of Louisiana.

Some of the hundreds of lawsuits in Selna's hands seek compensation for injury and death due to sudden acceleration, while others claim economic loss from owners who say the value of their Toyota vehicles plummeted after the recalls.

Toyota blamed faulty floor mats and sticky accelerator pedals for the unintended acceleration. Some plaintiffs also claim that there is a defect with Toyota's electronic throttle control system, but Toyota denies that.

Toyota's lead lawyer, Cari Dawson of Atlanta, suggested that some cases may be more quickly resolved if they are grouped by those involving vehicles that have been subjected to recall and those that have not.

"It's a win-win not only for the court but for the parties," Dawson said. "If this is all grouped in, there will be some delay to have them lock-stepped together."

Toyota has paid a record $16.4 million fine to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for failing to report its safety problems to the government in a timely manner. The agency has linked 52 deaths to Toyota acceleration problems.

Toyota said in a statement that it's confident the case will be conducted "with integrity and fairness."

In a tentative ruling late Wednesday, Selna set a framework for the plaintiffs' attorneys in which one panel would have five lawyers overseeing the wrongful death cases. Seven other would handle the economic loss lawsuits, and one would deal with discovery.

However, some lawyers believed the economic loss and wrongful death committees should have nine attorneys apiece, given the experience they bring to handle the complexity of the issues in the case.

Selna said he would reconsider the number of attorneys on the committees.

Some attorneys anticipate at least a $3 billion payout if Toyota decides to settle the cases. In comparison, drugmaker Merck & Co. has paid more than $4.8 billion into a settlement fund for tens of thousands of claims from people who used its withdrawn painkiller Vioxx.

Selna still must decide whether the lawsuits should be certified as a single class. Toyota has sought to dismiss that motion, saying drivers who haven't had any problems with their vehicles shouldn't be included in the case.

Additional hearings are scheduled for May 28 and June 25.

Comments

[dieselis]

11:14 PM on 05/13/2010

Does Toyota bare some responsibility in this case? Yes it certainly does however,its been mostly a witch hunt. As unfortunate as the deaths are in this case unless someone can duplicate the sticking throttle cause by computer software it's almost impossible to prove. Its more likely than not that Toyota is the automaker that provided Audi with the necessary information to win their sticky accelerator troubles in the 80s. I have a hunch this is some well planned retribution which will be extremely hard to prove. Unless someone turns over a smoking gun and other damning information. Toyota's had some management issues and let being#1 go to their heads which is uncharacteristic. They have great products and hopefully bounce back and accept fault were fault is do. American automakers have gotten away with much worse. The bulk of Toyota's sold here are built in the USA so technically their American too.

[econ1]

08:08 PM on 05/13/2010

This will add hundreds of dollars to the cost of cars, to the benefit of a few lawyers.

[LeeCalif]

07:39 PM on 05/13/2010

I wonder how many deaths due to the sudden acceleration were missed and dismissed as falling asleep and going off the road or something else. Poor souls.

[Tarpon22]

03:57 PM on 05/13/2010

Toyota hid the defect information according to a Toyota Executive and they did it on purpose.

54 American Citizens lost thier lives.
Sure they will sue and Toyota will settle out of court and pay their way out of this.

There is just one problem with that.

What Toyota did is Neglagent Homicied

When you knowingly do something and it leads to the death of someone.
It is Neglagent Homicied.

Where are the Charges for the sensless death of 54 American Citizens.

Why have charges not been filed.

Is this what our Prosecutorsr and Attorny Generals and the Government have become.

They will not criminally charge a company that knowingly lead to the death of 54 people and many more injured and one man sent to prison for 8 years.

NO, Money is not going to cut it this time.
No one should be allowed to pay their way out of Neglagent Homicide.
If it was an individual they would have already been charged and in Jail.

Again the HUFFPOST and Main Stream Media is not covering this issue and saying a word about it.

Instead they only want shock and aw headlines and forget JUSTICE.

This country is becomming DISGRACEFUL

[LeeCalif]

07:39 PM on 05/13/2010

Agree with you about Toyota.

[TheUncanny]

07:54 PM on 05/13/2010

You must be buying into the inaccurate-head-line-grabbing-sensationalized-non-sense the mass-media is spewing. ANYONE can go log information in the NHTSA database. In fact, just reading some of the complaints AFTER the media frenzy it's clear most if not all after the media attention are a joke. It is clear many people went in and logged complaints and the media continues to report them as fact (but some do state they are not verified).

There have been 7 deaths tied only to the floor-mats (which Toyota admitted WAS a problem and is paying for it big time now). The "sticky-peddle" recall was a knee-jerk reaction after only 6 complaints and NO injury...NONE. But for 6 complaints the company recalled over 2 million vehicles. It's very clear the company had NO CLUE how to deal with the shark attack it is currently going through and the new much younger "Toyoda" was clearly NOT ready to run a global company which only made the situation even worse.

Now we can all thank the media and our government trying to score political points for adding thousand of dollars to the price of your next new car.

Automobile companies didn't need a mandate to offer safety features like; anti-lock brakes, air-bags, stability control, etc... But now all of a sudden the auto-industry is trying to kill consumers for profit.

What a joke.

[Poiks]

02:14 PM on 05/13/2010

Yay! A whole new canvas for blastocyst and bluejoni!