Legal News

Pick Me! Toyota Plaintiffs? Lawyers to Plead Their Cases in San Diego

By Dionne Searcey

Let the jockeying begin! Next week dozens of lawyers who have filed suit against Toyota will descend upon San Diego hoping to emerge from the scrum as one of a handful of lawyers chosen to run the nationwide litigation. In San Diego, the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation will hold its first hearing on consolidating the myriad cases.

Among the rewards of taking the lead in the suits: influence over the debate about Toyota’s role in why some of its vehicles seem to accelerate on their own, a turn in the national spotlight and a potentially big payday from clients. We write about the issue in today's WSJ.

The hundreds of lawyers in the running have been building alliances through dinners, meetings and seminars. All the positioning has the air of a high-school election, according to several attorneys involved.

“If not a high-school election then it’s at least like being voted most popular,” said Mark Lanier (pictured), the heavyweight Houston plaintiffs’ lawyer whose firm has filed numerous suits against Toyota.

Lanier, who led litigation against Vioxx-maker Merck after some users of the pain medicine died of heart attacks, isn’t shy about his desire to play a lead role in the Toyota suits. “Pick me, pick me,” he said. “Vote for me for class president, please.”

Other potential highlights for those thinking of heading to San Diego: Louisiana personal-injury attorney Richard Arsenault is organizing a “Toyota Symposium” on the eve of the hearing with sessions led by lawyerly luminaries such as Lanier and his partner Dana Taschner as well as Mark Geragos (best known for defending Michael Jackson) and Danny Becnel (of Fen-Phen and breast implant fame). Topics of sessions include “Liability issues: The Mechanical vs. Electronic Debate (From Ford to Toyota: Lessons Learned).”

Many of the suits that will be discussed at next week's hearing are those seeking class action status and involve clients who believe their Toyota vehicles have lost value since the company started recalling more than 8 million cars worldwide, though there seems to be plenty of work for personal-injury lawyers as well.

Among the numerous outside lawyers who have been representing Toyota are Dallas attorney Kurt Kern of Hartline, Dacus, Barger, Dreyer & Kern, Michigan attorney Andrea Moody and San Jose attorney Vincent Galvin, both at Bowman and Brooke, and Washington D.C. attorney Theodore Hester at King & Spalding.

Photo: AP

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on March 15, 2010 (boomark / email).