Personal Injury Law

Toyota Personal Injury Lawsuits Consolidated Into One Case

By Michael

More than 150 different lawsuits against Toyota will be tried in one courtroom in front of a single federal judge in Santa Ana, Calif., including about 100 class action suits against the beleaguered Japanese automaker and another 50 personal injury lawsuits over claims of uncontrolled acceleration.

The ruling came down on April 9 from the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation, a panel comprised of seven judges charged with deciding whether the copious amount of lawsuits against the automaker could be tried in one shot, according to the L.A. Times.

Judge James V. Selna, who was appointed to the federal bench in 2003, will preside over the court hearing that will take place about 30 miles from Toyota?s headquarters in Torrance, Calif. The consolidated hearing will only include lawsuits that were filed in federal court against Toyota, and do not include state filings.

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Toyota, who was once led hybrid vehicle sales with the Prius, is now looking down the barrel of an onslaught of litigation including personal injury lawsuits, wrongful death suits and class action filings. The suits all stem from findings that accelerator pedals can stick or malfunction causing the vehicles to suddenly accelerate.

Since September 2009, Toyota has been in the throes of its largest recall ever, including vehicles with the floor mat and accelerator problems, but also some Priuses with brake issues.

About 10 million Toyota vehicles have been recalled worldwide since the measure began last fall, according to the L.A. Times.

Late in March, the federal judge panel heard various testimonies from attorneys representing people who filed lawsuits against the automaker and from Toyota?s lawyers.

While a handful of plaintiffs? lawyers made a case for each of the suits to be heard separately, a majority of attorneys on both sides of the ring argued that the overall process would be best handled by hearing the cases in one court room. The process of hearing multiple suits related to the same issue in one case is called multidistrict litigation, according to the L.A. Times.

“Centralization will create convenience for the parties and witnesses and will promote the more just and efficient conduct of this litigation,” wrote John G. Heyburn II, who served as chairman of the federal panel.

Most of the class action lawsuits are claiming economic loss from the recalls, wherein the resale value of Toyota vehicles people purchased before the recall have fallen.

The other lawsuits involve injuries and deaths that resulted from the equipment problems and motor vehicle accidents. While those types of cases are usually tried separately, the preliminary investigating into each case would involve overlapping, which is why the federal panel included them in the litigation.

Full post as published by The Injury Blog on April 21, 2010 (boomark / email).