Posts Tagged ‘Defective Toyota vehicles’

Seven Auto Insurance Companies File Massive Lawsuit Against Toyota Over Recall

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January 5th, 2011: Law Blogger

Toyota is in trouble. Perhaps you knew that, but trouble is nothing new to them. It used to be, but now it’s like a warm blanket…a very scratchy and irritating warm blanket. Ever since January of last year when they recalled 8.5 million vehicles across their whole fleet including Lexus, they have attracted problems like a giant feather duster.

A year later, they have since raised their recall total to nearly 12 million cars and trucks. This is on top of the largest fines in the history of all things with four wheels that go vroom, vroom. The reason for this is the defect called “sudden acceleration,” where the vehicle accelerates to over 100 mph without warning or the ability to brake or shift. Toyota blames the problem on floor mats causing the pedal to stick. Experts now believe this explanation to be divorced from reality and that it is a serious (and expensive) mechanical problem.

Insurance companies don’t really care what causes the problem. They’re more concerned with paying for the car after it’s plowed into a wall and injured or killed the driver. You see, all of those fines we mentioned above…well, those came about because investigators found that Toyota knew about the problem for up to 2 years prior to the problem and insurance companies paid out for accidents that were in fact Toyota’s fault. Oooops.

Car Insurance Subrogation

We brought you the story first of State Farm filing the first shot off of the bow of Toyota. They Allstate followed. Now, seven more auto insurance corporations are following. The legal action has created a new wave of United States civil litigation rising against Toyota as the Japanese carmaker fights to move past a car safety crisis spurred by a staggering number of complaints of the company’s vehicles accelerating uncontrollably.

The investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is still ongoing as it looks into claims that roughly 89 accident fatalities since 2000 that may have resulted from sudden acceleration in Toyota and luxury Lexus vehicles.

Due to these incidents, the automaker could also face up to $10 billion in possible civil liability in the United States courts from wrongful-death, personal injury, and consumer fraud claims resulting from complaints about unintended acceleration.

Included in the most recent lawsuits are:

Motorists Mutual Insurance Company
National Surety Corporation
American Automobile Insurance Company
Ameriprise Insurance Company
American Hardware Mutual Insurance Company
Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company
IDS Property Casualty Insurance Company

Collectively, the seven car insurance companies are requesting minimum compensatory damages of $188,000, a pittance compared to the $3 million of losses requested by Allstate Insurance in its suit filed in October on behalf of itself and affiliated companies.

Toyota Recall Lawyers Represent Victims

The insurers’ lawsuits, initiated in three different filings, arrive almost two weeks following reports that Toyota would pay $10 million to dismiss legal claims made by the relatives of a California state trooper and three family members whose deadly 2009 auto accident served as one impetus for the manufacturer’s recalls.

That wasn’t the only verdict that Toyota has lost. There have also been individual lawsuits, such as the one that freed Koua Fong Lee from serving a 10-year prison sentence over vehicular homicide because it was found that his Camry suddenly accelerated and killed the father and son.

This is encouraging news for the hundreds of people who have filed lawsuits against Toyota since the recall. There have been more than 200 lawsuits filed and more are added everyday. They accuse Toyota of various things, personal injury lawsuits, value based lawsuits, and wrongful death lawsuits are just some of the categories.

If you or a loved one are involved in a Toyota sudden acceleration incident or feel as if you were misled at the time of sale as to the resale value and safety of your vehicle then it is imperative that you get legal council that is experienced in defective product litigation to assure that you get the compensation you deserve. Call Phillips Webster for a consultation on your legal rights.

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Tags: defective product Lawyers, Defective Toyota vehicles, Toyota recall, Toyota Recall Attorneys, Toyota recall lawyers
Posted in Auto Accidents, car accident, Defective Product, Product Liability, Recall, Toyota

Toyota Recall Lawsuits and Fines Over Sudden Acceleration Top $40 Million in One Week

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December 27th, 2010: Law Blogger

When you think “monthly gift,” do you think “Toyota”? You would if you were a blogger. The car manufacturer began 2010 with the single largest car recall in history, 8.5 million vehicles for sudden acceleration issues. That was followed every month (every week in the beginning) with hearings, fines, hilarious PR bumbling, and more recalls. It’s like being the member of one of those delivery clubs where every month we a get a basket full of specialty cheeses, dried fruit, and Toyota news.

December features a $32.4 million fine from the US government and a $10 million wrongful death lawsuit settlement over four people who died in an accident that has become a poster-child for almost all wrongful death and personal injury lawsuits currently filed against Toyota. It is also the car accident that prompted the recall by bringing to light the car manufacturer’s negligence and attempts to avoid a problem they had known about for years prior.

The Toyota Lawsuit was filed by the family of Mark Saylor, a California Highway Patrol Officer, but was not part of the class action lawsuit that is currently residing in California. Saylor, his wife Cleofe, their 13-year-old daughter Mahala and Cleofe’s brother, Christ Lastrella, died when Saylor lost control of a Lexus ES350. The car was given to him as a loaner car by San Diego area Toyota dealer, Bob Baker Lexus, in August 2009.

According to the police report and witnesses the Lexus accelerated to speeds as high as 120 mph before smashing into another vehicle and careening off an embankment, killing all occupants.

The accident gained national media attention as a result of a 911 call placed by Lastrella from inside the vehicle while it was accelerating out of control. This is very similar to the woman that gave testimony in Toyota hearings in front of congress in February, saying that she called her husband from the car to tell him goodbye as her car accelerated out of control with no way of stopping it.

Witnesses reported that the car’s wheels burst into flames as Mark Saylor stood on the brakes in an attempt to stop the vehicle. This is very similar behavior to many sudden acceleration victims and parallels independent research pointing to a serious software problem in the vehicle.

But Toyota refuses to come clean, like so many times before, that it is a design problem and instead insists the problem was caused by the floor mat. This allows them to point their fingers directly at the dealership.

Toyota Lawsuit

The San Diego County sheriff’s department report on the accident was released in December 2009 after what they insist was a thorough investigation. The report determined that the accident was caused by an incompatible all-weather floor mat.

The report says that the mat was taken from a Lexus SUV model and was installed incorrectly in the ES 350 sedan at Bob Baker Lexus, and this car was then lent to the Saylor family.

The official department report concluded that:

The accelerator pedal became trapped either in the grooves of the all weather floor mat or underneath it, not allowing the accelerator pedal to return to idle when released.
The size of the mat in relation to the size of the floor pan did not allow room for easy manipulation to clear the pedal (the SUV mat is much larger and thicker than the sedan mat).
The plastic retaining clips were not attached, which could allow the mat to move forward and apply further pressure on the accelerator pedal.

Representatives of Bob Baker Lexus, have maintained the mechanical defect theory believed by many plaintiffs caused the accident. Toyota had no reservations about throwing the dealership under the bus, accusing the staff of incorrectly installing the floor mats that got jammed under Saylor’s pedal.

This is indicative of how Toyota treats their friends. In August, they had spokespeople clambering to the microphone to announce that all sudden acceleration incidents were caused by their customers due to “foot slipping.” This came after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) released a report saying that foot slipping might have been the case in some of the accidents after looking at black box data.

It was later revealed that the black boxes themselves were also faulty. Toyota has since not retracted their statement. Instead they choose to push their problems on the very people who bought their product.

Toyota Recall FInes

Toyota has recalled as many as 12 million cars in January, but their problems stem from before that time. You see, the NHTSA has been after them about the floor mat issue since 2007 and it wasn’t until a month after the fatal Saylor accident that the car company took the issue even close to seriously.

On September 29, 2009, Toyota announced a floor mat recall impacting 3.8 million Toyota and Lexus vehicles that contained a certain type of floor mat on the driver’s side that could cause the accelerator to stick. You can still see the floor mats prominently hanging on the walls of many dealerships with signs that say “wrong” and “right”. The right ones are thin, flimsy, and look as if they cost about $1 to produce in China.

Of course it was later found that almost their whole fleet was effected.

As a result, just days before the amount of the settlement was released, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced that Toyota was being fined $32.4 million. This comes as the result of two federal investigations into how the car manufacturer conducted unintended acceleration recalls and steering rod defects.

Government investigators say the company stalled on the recalls and failed to notify federal safety officials about the problems in a timely manner. The fines are the maximum allowed by law, but are only a small percentage of the total revenue of the car company, tantamount to a parking ticket when taken into perspective.

Toyota Recall Lawyers Protect Victims

This case was not supposed to be revealed to the public. According to the Associated Press, it was Bob Baker Lexus that decided to release details in order to clear their name of accusations by Toyota. They also intended to shed light on the design problems of the vehicle so long denied by the Japanese car company.

This certainly, once again, leaves the victims in the middle. The family received justice, but did not want to be badgered by solicitations. Instead, just like Toyota set aside their customer’s safety for profit, Bob Baker Lexus decided that their legal woes were more important than that of their customer’s privacy.

This whole issue seems to get less and less scrupulous by the day.

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J.D. Power Shows Toyota Recall Taking Toll on Consumer Confidence

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December 16th, 2010: Law Blogger

We at the Phillips Webster Blog were slightly baffled for a spell. It seemed that not even the largest defective vehicle recall in automotive history had penetrated the American consumer’s attention span or lack-there-of. A series of recalls for serious safety problems throughout 2010 ranging from sudden acceleration to leaking brake fluid tubes put the total number o defective vehicles recalled by Toyota near 12 million.

But yet Toyota sales went up as little as two months from the date of the recall. Was the American consumer’s attention span that short? Was the zero down, zero at signing, zero interest, and zero payments for 12 months incentive ( aka, the “Why steal an old Toyota when you can steal one right off the lot” campaign) so appealing that people were willing to compromise their personal safety for a new car?

The answer is a resounding, “Yes!” But, with a new study released by J.D. Power & Associates, Toyota was either padding their sales numbers or…actually there is no “or.”

J.D. Power Avoider Study

J.D. Power’s 2010 Avoider Study, released yesterday, found that 19% of new car shoppers surveyed steered clear of Toyota showrooms because they thought the automaker had a “bad reputation.” That’s way up from the roughly 2% who said they wouldn’t consider a Toyota in 2009 prior to the recall.

Most respondents said that they avoided Toyota either because of a bad prior reputation or because of concern over the automaker’s future.

“Perceptions about reliability are slow to change, and some brands have a negative consumer perception that is at odds with reality,” said Kerri Wise, director of automotive research at J.D. Power and Associates. “However, brands are getting the word out about their actual reliability performance and are slowly but steadily changing perceptions.”

Of course, Toyota questioned the survey’s timing. The automaker said in a statement released last night that the survey was conducted “during a period of high profile and highly publicized recalls” and that “it is not unexpected that many potential buyers’ perceptions of Toyota’s long standing reputation for quality and reliability might be influenced.”

Of course, there are always two sides to any study. A survey released by Kelley Blue Book earlier in the week indicated that Toyota is still the most-considered automaker for new car purchases. How reliable is Kelley Blue Book? Try buying a copy, take it and your car to a dealership and find out.

Regardless, as you can imagine the largest beneficiary from the Toyota Recall are competitors, but from some unlikely places. The study finds that some redesigned models have much higher consideration rates than the previous-generation models they replaced. Among redesigned models, the Cadillac SRX, Ford Taurus and Kia Sorento have notably higher consideration rates, compared to their predecessors, as well as higher consideration rates than their respective segment averages.

“A new-model launch or redesign is a manufacturer’s best opportunity to change the perceptions of the past,” said Wise. “While most redesigned models have higher consideration than the previous-generation models, some models are far surpassing their predecessors, and in the process, are attracting many additional customers to the brand.”

Overall, competition in the new global economy is heating up even though the putrid economy has essentially stunk up the whole world. According to Tom Voelk, car reviewer for KING 5 News in Seattle, competition and the number of choices consumers have has risen considerably since 2005. He also said that car companies, though certainly offering economy car to lower income consumers, car companies previously known for value such as KIA are still voraciously working to compete in the high-end market. Apparently, the profit margin in that market is to good to pass up.

Seattle Defective Design Attorneys Protect Consumer Rights

Toyota currently has hundreds of lawsuits filed against the company regarding the sudden acceleration issue. Many of these lawsuits are by individuals and their families who have been personally injured or wrongfully killed in a Toyota sudden acceleration accident. Others are lawsuits regarding lost value in the resale of the car and some of the lawsuits are from insurance companies seeking repayment of repairs and insurance settlements due to the Toyota recall.

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Tags: defective product Lawyers, Defective Toyota vehicles, Toyota recall, Toyota Recall Attorneys, Toyota recall lawyers
Posted in Auto Accidents, car accident, Product Liability, Recall, Toyota

Toyota Lawsuits Going Forward Despite Company Protest to Judge

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November 19th, 2010: Law Blogger

This week was not a good week for Toyota. Just as they were standing in court saying that their “sudden acceleration” defect was not proven and that they are merely fixing cars as a precaution, half a family dies in Utah and the other half is sent to the hospital after their Toyota Camry crashed and the accident has been tied by authorities to a sudden acceleration issue.

Wow, talk about embarrassing huh? Now a federal judge seems ready to allow owners of certain Toyotas to sue the auto manufacturer for economic losses they accrued due to lowered retail value associated with the cars attached to the recall. The reason why there is some wrangling about this is because these are owners that are suing even if their vehicles haven’t had any sudden acceleration problems or (in some cases) even been to the dealership for the recall fix.

U.S. District Judge James V. Selna heard arguments on Toyota Motor Corp.’s motion to dismiss consolidated economic based class action lawsuits over sudden acceleration claims regarding its vehicles. If you haven’t heard by now, The company recalled more than 8.5 million Toyota vehicles worldwide over the fact that they surge forward without being able to brake or shift out of gear until, in most cases they are stopped by the aid of something. In the case of the Utah family, that aid was unfortunately rendered by a stone wall.

Regardless, these issues have resulted in hundreds of lawsuits against the world’s largest automaker. About 200 federal lawsuits mostly economic loss, some personal injury claims, and some wrongful death have been consolidated and assigned to Selna, based in U.S. District Court, Central District of California (Santa Ana).

Toyota Lawsuits

In August, attorneys representing multiple Toyota owners filed a mass economic-loss complaint. In it they alleged that sudden acceleration problems are tied to faulty electronic throttle-control systems in the vehicles. This was demonstrated months ago by independent investigators to ABC News in a controlled environment,

The plaintiff’s legal team also said that Toyota was aware of problems in the electronic systems because of complaints, but failed to install a brake-override system that would allow drivers to safely stop their vehicles. The brake-override system immediately stops the engine when there are issues indicated.

Toyota lawyers told the judge that there was “no evidence” of a flaw in its electronic throttle-control systems nor a connection between sudden acceleration and the electronic systems. Instead they insist that the sudden acceleration is due to faulty floor mats, but in August, they also claimed that most of the sudden acceleration incidents were due to “operator error.”

They filed a motion to dismiss the cases in September.

The judge issued a tentative ruling yesterday on a motion that would allow Toyota owners who have not experienced any such sudden acceleration problems to sue the automaker for economic loss. Toyota lawyers, of course, objected and want the judge to strike all 22 such claims because the individuals’ cars haven’t experienced any sudden acceleration defects.

“The tentative ruling would open the floodgates of federal court for those who don’t have financial loss.” Cari Dawson, a lawyer for Toyota, protested, “Shouldn’t the court be focused on those cases who have injury, and getting those to trial?”

To plaintiff’s attorneys, this is a matter of the age-old argument of “selling a horse you knew was sick.” They contend consumers deserve money because sudden acceleration problems, and the automaker’s recalls, have led to diminished values of vehicles.

“Those people have economic standing. They were injured,” said Steve Berman, lead plaintiff’s attorney in the class action case. “What they didn’t get here was a safe car … they overpaid for the car.”

Selna seemed to agree and said he would issue a final ruling by Thanksgiving.

Toyota Recall Lawyers Seek Justice

This is a common sense argument that Toyota should be economically responsible for their short comings. Many of these people bought these cars because in advertisements and through written information provided at the dealerships, Toyota used their resale value as, not a secondary selling point, but a main selling point.

Once the recalls were announced and a large portion of their fleet that had been sold since 2006 had been recalled, the value of the cars dropped considerably. They knew prior to the recall about the problem, as early as July 2009, but still sold cars as the highest resale value on the market. The fact that they knew caused the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to levy the largest fine on the company in their history.

Economic loss due to consumer deception is a serious problem that consumers should be allowed to seek economic reparations for.

If you or a loved one have been affected by the Toyota Recall, it is important that you have experienced Defective Product Liability council on your side to protect your rights and show you your legal options. Call the Toyota Recall Lawyers at Phillips Webster today for a consultation.

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Tags: defective product Lawyers, Defective Toyota vehicles, Toyota recall, Toyota Recall Attorneys, Toyota recall lawyers
Posted in Auto Accidents, car accident, Product Liability, Recall, Toyota, Wrongful Death

“Fixed” Toyota Camry Tied To Sudden Acceleration Death in Utah

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November 16th, 2010: Law Blogger

Toyota and their public relations department just don’t seem to be getting a rest lately. Every month this year they have had either a recall or a scandal. Forced recalls like the one in January involving 8 million cars, in July involving 412,000 cars, in August involving 1.3 million cars, or the one just last month involving another 1.5 million luxury cars for faulty brakes just makes it seem like they haven’t produced a decent car in years.

One would think that the fines, investigations, allegations of cover-ups, and hundreds of lawsuits around the country might deter sales, but, though Toyota sales aren’t what they used to be, they are still in the upper echelon of car manufacturers. This is done through savvy advertising and previously unheard-of incentives.

This brings to the forefront the question, are they deceiving their customers when they tout the safety and reliability of their cars in advertising? And what about after dealers have supposedly fixed the vehicle of it’s recalled defect the vehicle still crashes, a situation in which many customers have found themselves?

Well, for one grieving Utah family and accident investigators, these questions and more are at the forefront as two of their members are dead and two lie in the hospital with serious personal injuries.

Toyota Sudden Acceleration Accident

The crash of a Toyota Camry in western Utah is being blamed on a sticky gas pedal. Tire skid marks showed that the Camry’s driver, Paul Vanalfen, 66, tried to stop the vehicle as it exited Interstate 80 near the Nevada border on Nov. 5, police said. The car went through a stop sign at the bottom of the ramp and through an intersection before slamming into a rock wall, killing the driver and a passenger, his son’s fiancee, Charlene Lloyd, 38.

Vanalfen’s wife and son were severly injured.

“Based on statements from witnesses and statements from those that survived the crash inside the car, [the investigator is] led to believe that the pedal was stuck,” Utah Highway Patrol Trooper Todd Johnson said.

The Camry’s brakes appeared to be in working order, the trooper confirmed.

There are questions, particularly by Toyota, as to whether Vanalfen had taken the car into the dealership to be fixed. Toyota spokesman Paul Nolasco, in Tokyo, said he did not have details on whether the Vanalfen Camry underwent any fixes under its recall.

Johnson, on the other hand, said that investigators believe Vanalfen had in fact taken his car into the dealership to address the latest recall notice. He said his agency had not completed its investigation and it wasn’t immediately clear how long that would take.

Investigators from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said that they were reviewing the details of the crash and declined further comment on it.

Toyota Camry Recalls

Though Toyota has recently run commercials claiming the safety of the 2008 Toyota Camry beat out its contemporaries on the market this year, the vehicle has in reality been the subject of three recalls, most recently for an accelerator that can get stuck in the open position.

The 2008 Camry was subject to recalls focusing on all-weather floor mats interfering with accelerator pedals, unsecured mats entrapping the gas pedal and accelerators getting stuck. Then Toyota blamed the sudden acceleration defect on the accelerator pedals themselves, saying they may have a tendency to stick.

Through early November, Toyota said about 3 million vehicles covered by the recall had been fixed. That included more than 80 percent of the Toyota Camry, Avalon and Lexus ES350 models involved. Dealers installed a steel reinforcement bar to reduce the friction inside the pedal and prevent the gas pedal from sticking.

The NHTSA said it has received about 3,000 reports of sudden acceleration from Toyota drivers in the past decade, including 93 deaths. The government, however, has confirmed only four deaths from one crash.

Camrys from the 2007-10 model years covered by the second floor mat entrapment recall were supposed to receive a brake override system. The system was designed to cut engine power when a driver is applying both the brakes and the accelerator pedal together. It is unknown yet whether this system was installed in Vanalfen’s vehicle.

Brian Lyons, a Toyota spokesman, said the automaker was assisting the Utah Highway Patrol with its investigation. The automaker said it was too early to draw any conclusions about the cause of the crash.

Independent research has found that the problem is caused by a complicated and expensive software glitch in the vehicle’s internal computer, but Toyota insists that mechanics at dealerships replacing the floor mats and pedals will resolve the problem despite hundreds of complaints of sudden acceleration even after the recall repair.

Toyota said it hasn’t found any electronic problems after reviewing 4,200 vehicles in which owners alleged problems with unintended acceleration.

But if you are a regular reader of this blog then you have read about how the black boxes in Toyota’s were found to be flawed and how they have recently been found to have a secret defective auto buyback program, which may have hidden hundreds, if not thousands, of defective Toyotas, including Camrys, from NHTSA investigators.

Toyota Recall Lawyer Represents Victim’s Rights

Phillips Webster is now taking calls from Toyota customers concerned about their safety and their rights following a sudden acceleration event. They are concerned as to whether they have the right to seek compensation after they have been injured or a loved one has been killed in a car accident due to sudden acceleration.

If you or someone you know has been effected by the Toyota recall resulting in a car accident or serious personal injury then it is very important that you find an attorney with experience in product liability litigation that can represent you and assure that you get the compensation you deserve. Call Phillips Webster for a free consultation and to find out your legal options.

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Tags: defective product Lawyers, Defective Toyota vehicles, Toyota recall, Toyota Recall Attorneys, Toyota recall lawyers
Posted in Product Liability, Recall, Toyota

Toyota Lawsuits Reveal Company Defective Vehicle Repurchase and Customer Silence Plan

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November 3rd, 2010: Law Blogger

Prior to 2010, the largest and most profitable car manufacturer in the world, Toyota, seemed to have a loyal almost cult-like following. Then in January you may remember that there was an 8.5 million-car recall for sudden acceleration that seemed to spread across their fleet of cars and trucks.

Since then, that number has bloated to almost 12 million cars recalled and the largest fines ever levied on a car company by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). On top of that it has resulted in hundreds of lawsuits around the United States from drivers and families of deceased drivers who charge that they were personally injured or wrongfully killed in a car accident related to the sudden acceleration defect.

But Toyota has been fighting tooth and nail against…well…their customers. Apparently, if a customer says something disparaging about the company, such as how one of their cars tried to kill them, the company dredges up all kinds of dirt on the person as was the case with James Sikes, the real estate agent out of California.

But if you’re just a regular customer that was almost killed by a Toyota, then their treatment is much softer, all they do is make you sign away your rights.

Toyota Repurchasing Scheme

The Japanese car company and the NHTSA have gotten hundreds of calls and complaints, even since the recall, complaining of sudden acceleration where the car suddenly begins accelerating to over 100 mph, while at the same time the brakes fail and the car keeps on going even if shifted into park. One woman gave testimony in front of congress at hearings in February that after she had exhausted all of her options she made a phone call to her husband on the on-board computer system of her Camry (which still worked) to tell him goodbye and that she loved him. The car began to decelerate when she got off the phone with him.

This story is repeated over and over by customers. Toyota blames it on the floor mats, which they prominently display at their dealerships with two virtually identical floor mats, one labeled “right,” and one labeled “wrong.”

Regardless, after the car has crashed, Toyota approaches the customer and offers to repurchase the vehicle from them, there’s just a few simple forms to sign. One of the forms is a confidentiality clause, the other says that the customer won’t sue the company. So, basically, the car company strips you of not only your right to sue, but also your 1^st amendment right to talk. Of course, Toyota denies this…but not all of it.

The car company said in a statement, “Contrary to reports, Toyota does not require vehicle owners to sign confidentiality agreements when the company repurchases a vehicle. Instead, customers are asked, but not required, to enter into a settlement agreement that releases the company from liability. The majority of owners agree to sign this release, but it does not contain a confidentiality clause.”

So, what Toyota’s saying is that they’re only stripping customers of some of their constitutional rights, not others, and that makes the whole thing okay. Unfortunately, this latest claim by plaintiffs’ attorneys suggests that Toyota attempted to keep the information that some of their cars were accelerating out of control out of ear shot from customers and regulators, as the company allegedly never told NHTSA regulators about the buy backs.

This means that they never submitted the vehicles to the NHTSA for testing even though they had full knowledge that those specific vehicles had been effected by the defects and were ordered to provide suspected vehicles to the NHTSA for testing. This is on top of the fact that they admitted to having faulty Toyota black boxes in their vehicles that only provided partial or inaccurate information.

Toyota Lawsuits

All of the Toyota sudden acceleration lawsuits were consolidated in April and centralized in California before U.S. District Judge James Selna as part of a multidistrict litigation (MDL) for pretrial proceedings. There are around 228 federal lawsuits over recalled Toyota vehicles included in the MDL.

There are also nearly 100 other lawsuits pending in other state courts across the country and some have already begun to close, such as the trial of Koua Fong Lee. The Thai immigrant had spent nearly a decade in prison for killing a father and son and crippling a child in a car accident. Lee always said it was because of the car. After the recall the Camry he was driving was tested and evidence showed that the accident was due to sudden acceleration. Now he and the family of the deceased have joined in a lawsuit against Toyota in their state.

Toyota is attempting to have many of the claims dismissed. They say that the lawsuits fail to identify an actual defect in the vehicles even though independent research conducted by Southern Illinois University automotive technology department published results showing the problem in simulation and proved that it was a software problem rather than a $1 floormat issue.

Many of the lawsuits claim that there is a problem with Toyota’s electronic throttle system; which the company denies. Toyota’s sudden acceleration recalls were for throttle pedals that could get stuck in the open position due to condensation or jammed under thick all-weather floor mats.

Toyota’s motion to dismiss will be addressed at a November 19 hearing.

Toyota Recall Lawyers Protecting Victim’s Rights

Phillips Webster is now taking calls from Toyota customers concerned about their safety and their rights following a sudden acceleration event. They are concerned as to whether they have the right to seek compensation and are leery about documents that the Toyota corporation is asking them to sign.

If you or someone you know has been effected by the engine stall recall or steering recall on the Toyota Matrix or Toyota Corolla, resulting in a car accident or serious personal injury then it is very important that you find an attorney with experience in product liability litigation that can represent you and assure that you get the compensation you deserve. Call Phillips Webster for a free consultation and to find out your legal options.

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Toyota Recall Lawyer: Another 1.5 Million Luxury Cars Recalled for Faulty Brakes

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October 21st, 2010: Law Blogger

Its almost the end of October and we thought that perhaps this would be the first month since Toyota’s giant 8 million car recall in January that they wouldn’t announce another recall of a few thousand Toyota vehicles for something that could potentially kill their customers. Now we have learned not to underestimate Toyota’s power to create a defective product, whether it’s a scale down truck or wrapped in luxury ribbon, because today they came through in spectacular Toyota fashion.

The beleaguered Japanese car manufacturer’s recall of 1.53 million cars and light trucks worldwide today boosts their tally of U.S. vehicles to more than 5 million this year and a whopping 14 million cars worldwide.

Toyota was once the top trusted name in sales and reliability and the most profitable car company in the world. But like disgraced American sprinter Marion Jones, to keep on breaking you own world records something has to give. In Ms. Jones case it was steroids, in Toyota’s case it was quality. The difference between the two is that Marion Jones was stripped of her gold medals and has fallen into obscurity in abject shame. Toyota, on the other hand, is enjoying a healthy flow of sales due to misleading advertising and rock bottom financing incentives. And the world turns…

Toyota Recall Details

Specifically, the problem is with the tubes to the brake system. The brake systems were made to only use Toyota brand brake fluid, which contains certain polymers. If your mechanic outside of the Toyota dealership uses another type of brake fluid, it may not contain those special polymers. As a result, the brake master cylinder cup, an internal rubber seal in the brake system, may become dry and curl up. This could cause brake fluid to leak out and activate the vehicle’s brake warning light.

To put it simply, the brake fluid leaks making it harder to brake, requiring the car owner to stomp on the brake to make the car stop. This could extend the vehicle’s stopping range considerably and becomes a real issue in the case of avoiding an accident, of which the car company has said there are no reports of car accidents or personal injury.

The models being recalled are:

Avalon (2005 and 2006)
Non-hybrid Highlander (2004 through 2006)
Lexus RX330 (2004 through 2006)
Lexus GS300 (2006)
Lexus IS250 (2006)
Lexus IS350 (2006)

It is unknown why Toyota used a tube requiring a special polymer not standard in the market. One could speculate that it just goes along with Toyota’s tendency toward design flaws or that requiring customers to use Toyota specific products and maintenance to keep their product safe and on the road means more profit. Of course, as we said, that is just speculation. No car company in their right minds would dream of compromising their customer’s safety for profit.

Toyota Recall Lawyer Represents Victim’s Rights

The problems with this recall are many. One is that the standard 2 year maintenance package on a Toyota is just that, two years; so after that time why would a customer take their car to the expensive dealership mechanic? They wouldn’t, but a Toyota mechanic outside of the dealership may not know that these models of Toyota require specialized brake fluid. This not only displays bad planning on Toyota’s part but no planning and thus puts their customers in danger.

Another problem with these recalls is that there are drivers who may not make the connection between the recall and an injury car accident that they had two or three years ago. If a customer lost a loved one in a car accident they may not even know that it may have been due to a flaw in the vehicle. Due to the flaws in braking system the victim could have underestimated the pressure or the braking capacity while taking a turn or approaching a stop and died, thus not being able to relay their story.

Take these things to heart. Like airplane accidents, not all accidents are due to operator error.

If you have been injured or have a loved one that has been killed by a defective Toyota then you should find council that is experienced in defective product litigation immediately. Call the Toyota Recall Lawyers at Phillips Webster for a consultation into your legal options.

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Recall Lawyers: New Lawsuits Loom as Toyota Announces 3.7 Mil Repairs & Drop in Complaints

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October 4th, 2010: Law Blogger

Toyota executives were so excited about their news today that there may have been some conference room blood-sports to determine who could make the announcement. You can be rest assured that there was some awkward non-athlete high-fiving and perhaps even a tie-on-tie chest bump. Either way, with news of rising sales and consumer short term memory loss, it looks as if Toyota is coming out of the burning woods and stepping into a prairie fire in the form of lawsuits.

Steve St. Angelo, Toyota’s chief quality officer for North America, said on a conference call with reporters this morning that the rate of complaints about sudden acceleration had fallen 80% since April and that dealers have repaired 3.7 million of the 6 million vehicles in the United States covered by its two biggest recalls.

“Toyota has made significant progress in recent months to help ensure that our customers can have complete confidence in the quality, safety and reliability of their vehicles, and our latest initiatives build on those accomplishments,” Angelo said.

If you’ve been out of the news cycle for a while this is all in reference to Toyota’s recall of more than 10 million vehicles worldwide since January to resolve what they characterize as floor-mat interference and sticking pedal problems causing sudden acceleration issues that have resulted in 98 reported wrongful deaths and hundreds of personal injuries due to the issue.

Toyota Sudden Acceleration Cover Up?

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) regulators and Toyota had received reports as early as 2007 of sudden acceleration issues, but after the recall announcement, they were flooded with complaints from drivers who say their Toyota or Lexus accelerated suddenly, or from family members of crash victims alleging a defect was responsible.

There were striking similarities in the stories of car accelerating over 100 mph while the brakes stopped working and shifting out of gear was useless. These stories were repeated at hearings in front of congress in February.

To put this into perspective, when they say an 80% drop in complaints, that means that the complaints have dropped from 800 per day to 150 per day, still a significant volume of people complaining of sudden acceleration and some of them from cars they have driven off of the lot after the recall. So the statement by Toyota is convoluted at best.

Toyota has a history of deception with this recall. This is proven when the NHTSA levied the largest fine ever on a car company over Toyota hiding evidence and deceiving investigators.

This goes even further by Toyota deceiving their customers through advertising. Only in the last month they advertised their popular line of 2010 Camrys as “best in the market in its class according to Motor Trend,” when Motor Trend made that quote in 2009 prior to the announcement that all Camrys sold since 2006 were being recalled.

Toyota Recall Lawyers Seek Justice

Most of these lawsuits have been consolidated into a class action lawsuit under a single judge in California, but there are others that have chosen to stay independent and stay in their own state. One of the first of these trials concluded this summer when a jury determined that a man had been wrongly convicted of vehicular homicide after his Camry suddenly accelerated out of control, killing a father and son. The Thai immigrant and father of four was released from jail and is now perusing compensation from Toyota in civil court along with the family of the individuals killed in the accident.

This is a clear indication that the defective Toyotas are a real issue that affects Toyota’s millions of customers. It is the consumer’s rights to seek compensation for defectively designed products that may endanger their lives and the lives of their loved ones.

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Tags: defective floor mats, Defective Toyota vehicles, toyota, Toyota recall, Toyota Recall Attorneys
Posted in Auto Accidents, car accident, Product Liability, Recall, Toyota

Toyota Recall: Toyota Fixes Black Box Software Glitch Only After NHTSA Investigates Them

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September 14th, 2010: Law Blogger

Since the Toyota recall in January of 8 million (now the number is up to 10.5 million) of numerous models of vehicles made as early as 2004 for a defect that causes them to suddenly accelerate to over 100 mph without the ability to brake or shift, we have been writing at least three Toyota related articles per month about something else wrong with a vehicle or something unscrupulous the company has done. Writing these articles give us what we have now dubbed, “Toyota-chills.”

It’s the same feeling we get when we pass a Toyota dealership and see people buying Toyota vehicles before the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has concluded its investigation as to the real cause of the recall.

Now one of those chills has struck us again. Toyota said yesterday that they discovered (and apparently fixed) a bug in the software that reads data from crash recorders.

Toyota executives said that they informed U.S. safety regulators there might be a problem in June.

Okay, so you may be saying, “I don’t see a problem here.” Just wait, because you’re about to get a shiver.

Broken Crash Recorders

The NHTSA tested numerous black boxes and came to the conclusion in early July that around 50% of the sudden acceleration issues were caused by drivers because the 50 or so crash recorders show the vehicle as accelerating rather than braking at the moment of impact.

This revelation prompted Toyota spokesman Mike Michels to jump in front of the press and immediately blame their customers saying, “pedal misapplication” was the cause in “virtually all” cases of unwanted speeding (aka, sudden acceleration). This news of course was unabashedly spread throughout the media and the media soaked it up without questioning it or doing things like “journalism.”

If the news agencies had done their due diligence (or at least read this blog once), they would have realized that all of the Toyota crash recorders the NHTSA were investigating were broken…something we wrote in this blog in APRIL!

It was regarding an accident that happened here in Washington State regarding the death on Oct. 17, 2007 of Chris Eves in his Toyota Tundra. It took his parents three years to convince Toyota to release the crash recorder to be examined by an independent crash investigator (Toyota deems crash data to be proprietary and never releases that information). Not only did Toyota just allow the investigator to see the last 5 seconds of the crash data, that crash data revealed that Eves’ Tundra pickup was going 170 mph at the time of the crash, faster than the vehicle is capable of achieving.

Feel the chills yet?

Toyota Recall Attorney

Toyota has now provided 150 crash recorders that they swear has been fixed of the software problem that keeps them from misreporting data. Why not? They’ve already gotten their chance to mislead the NHTSA, the public, the media, and blame their customers so there’s no reason not to release the data. It will probably be subpoenaed anyway.

And talking about subpoenas, there are hundreds of Toyota lawsuits currently underway stemming from the recall, personal injury, and wrongful death related to car accidents allegedly caused by the sudden acceleration issues in recalled Toyotas.

Victims have told a similar harrowing story. Their Toyota suddenly begins to accelerate, they take their foot off of the accelerator but it persists. They try to brake, but the vehicle just goes faster and faster. They shift it our of gear, they pull the emergency brake, they try to pull out the keys, nothing, nothing, and nothing. If they don’t crash, the car begins to slow just as suddenly as it accelerated, once again giving them back control of the vital systems of the car.

The Toyota Corporation officially blamed the problem on accelerator pedals getting stuck under floor mats. Independent researchers have questioned that conclusion and proven in trials that the problem is a serious (and expensive) software problem in the drive system of the car. Toyota has denied that explanation going as far as decorating their waiting areas with two floor mats hanging off of the wall, both practically identical, but one labeled “bad” and one labeled “good.”

This may also explain why some of the crash recorders are reporting no attempts to brake at the time of the crash. Perhaps the car was accelerating and in the few seconds before the crash that is recorded by the device the driver had given up on trying to brake and turned to prayer.

Upon hearing about what went wrong with the car, plaintiffs involved in the Toyota lawsuits realized that they were affected by the issue many years later, some were affected recently, and many may be affected in the future.

If you have been injured or have a loved one that has been killed by a defective Toyota then you should find council that is experienced in defective product litigation immediately. Call Phillips Webster for a consultation into your legal options.

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Toyota Recalls 1.3 Million Corollas and Matrix For New Defect After 163 Complaints & 6 Crashes

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August 26th, 2010: Law Blogger

The monthly recalls issued by Toyota Motor Corp., the world’s largest automaker, in 2010 are almost getting laughable, but the defects that cause serious personal injuries and wrongful deaths of loved ones are no laughing matter.

The announcement today of 1.3 million Corollas and Matrix cars would be a massive industry shaking recall if it hadn’t fallen on the heals of Toyota’s recall in January of 8 million cars and 2 more million since then. It’s like BP crashing a tanker in Lake Michigan and saying that its okay because at least it wasn’t as big as the Gulf Oil Spill.

Toyota is recalling the Corolla and Matrix cars for an engine defect that U.S. regulators said could cause stalling “at any speed without warning.” The vehicles for the model years 2005 to 2008 in the U.S. and Canada following at least three reported accidents linked to the defect.

Toyota tested 32 of the engine components and found four had cracking after thermal-shocking tests, said John Hanson, a spokesman at the Toyota U.S. sales unit in Torrance, California.

“Toyota concluded that this problem would likely continue to occur, and, therefore, in order to address customer concerns, decided to conduct a voluntary safety recall of all vehicles within the affected range,” Chris Santucci, Toyota Motor North America’s manager of technical and regulatory affairs, wrote today in a letter to the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

The recall also affects about 162,000 of General Motors Co.’s Pontiac Vibe hatchbacks, which were manufactured in a joint venture with Toyota in California.

Toyota Fixes One Problem, Ignores Another

On Aug. 18 the NHTSA upgraded its investigation of the defect to an engineering analysis, a step that can lead the agency to demand a recall. The safety regulator has received 163 complaints, including six crashes, about engines stalling in the cars and began investigating in November.

Cracks in engine control units could occur if improperly cured coating was applied to circuit boards. Toyota said it will repair the cars at no cost to owners and will reimburse those who had already had the repair done at their own cost.

But what about the steering problem that Toyota decided to completely ignore in July?

That defect would have spurred the recall of 750,000 Corollas and Matrix vehicles, but not the 2005 to 2008 models. Instead it would effect the 2009 and 2010 models, the very ones sitting on the lot today, so car company refused.

In February, the NHTSA opened an investigation into 2009 and 2010 Corolla and Matrix models after receiving 168 reports that the electric power steering in the vehicles was prone to drifting or locking up, especially at highway speeds.

In response to NHTSA, Toyota said that it had 437 reports of steering problems covering 395 vehicles, including 11 injuries in 18 crashes. That’s 437 times that Toyota violated the NHTSA requirements that they inform them of complaints within a week of the complaint.

A Toyota spokesperson said in July that the company believes most of the complaints involved wandering from the on-center steering position that didn’t amount to a safety problem. “We see this as a customer-satisfaction issue.”

If you’re wondering why a drifting car is a customer-satisfaction issue, then you’re probably asking the same questions we are. You see, vehicles crossing the centerline and causing horrific head on collisions is an epidemic in North America. In this blog we cover them multiple times a week in Washington alone.

But there is some truth to Toyota’s statement. If the driver lives through the crash, they are certainly not a satisfied customer.

The reality, as we know from the conduct of Toyota throughout the past few years and certainly during its unraveling in 2010, is that Toyota will do everything they can to protect their bottom line. They are recalling cars out of necessity and fear of further litigation rather than a sincere intention to protect their customers.

Toyota Lawsuits

There have been hundreds of lawsuits brought against Toyota for their sudden acceleration recall. Some of these lawsuits are also wrongful death lawsuits that are connected to the issues surrounding the recall. The lawsuits have been centered within the state of California where a judge has been assigned to address the lawsuits and consolidate them if needed.

The California judge has consolidated lawsuits into one class action lawsuit. This allows a consolidation of evidence and allows Toyota legal teams to address each lawsuit by type rather than individually which is a long and expensive process. Since there are still hundreds of lawsuits to be addressed you still have time to file your lawsuit.

This does not mean that all of the Toyota lawsuits have joined the California class action suit or that they necessarily need to. The different problems associated with separate recalls are on an individual basis, so people who find themselves stalling on the freeway causing a serious accident or drifting into a serious accident as related to the steering defect may have their own lawsuit tried in their own state.

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Tags: Corolla, Defective Toyota vehicles, Toyota recall, Toyota Recall Attorneys, Toyota recall lawyers
Posted in Auto Accidents, car accident, Defective Product, Product Liability, Recall, Toyota

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