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Toyota Lawsuit Judge Names Lead Attorneys for Cases – BusinessWeek

May 14, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The federal judge overseeing sudden- acceleration lawsuits against Toyota Motor Corp. appointed 21 plaintiffs’ lawyers to manage litigation involving U.S. claims.

Toyota, the world’s largest automaker, faces at least 228 federal and 99 state lawsuits including proposed class actions over economic loss and claims of personal injuries or deaths caused by sudden-acceleration incidents. The federal lawsuits were combined April 9 in a multidistrict litigation, or MDL, before U.S. District Judge James V. Selna in Santa Ana, California.

More than 70 plaintiffs’ lawyers sought appointments to leadership positions in the federal lawsuits, including about 60 who spoke at a hearing before Selna yesterday.

Selna’s appointments today include Steve Berman at Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP in Seattle as co-lead counsel for economic loss plaintiffs and Elizabeth Cabraser at Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein LLP in San Francisco as co-lead for personal injury and death cases.

via Toyota Lawsuit Judge Names Lead Attorneys for Cases (Update1) – BusinessWeek.

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Lawyers Vie For Lead Roles in Toyota Suits | Orange County Business Journal

May 10, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Mark Robinson of Newport Beach’s Robinson, Calcagnie & Robinson Inc. and Wylie Aitken of Santa Ana’s Aitken Aitken Cohn are among those seeking to lead Toyota litigation being consolidated in Santa Ana.

Federal Judge James Selna on Thursday is expected to select a committee of lawyers to lead suits against Toyota’s U.S. arm in Torrance. He’s expected to pick from more than 100 lawyers vying for an expected five lead spots. More than a dozen other lawyers are set to be tapped for supporting roles.

“This is obviously going to be a very major case involving a tremendous amount of legal talent,” said Aitken, founder of Aitken Aitken Cohn.

At stake is a pot of money estimated at $200 million to $500 million in lawyers fees that would be split among the lead and supporting lawyers.

Robinson, senior partner at Robinson, Calcagnie & Robinson, has applied to lead personal injury litigation against Toyota. He and other lawyers submitted their bids last month.

Judge Selna has “given criteria in his order and a lot of people have applied,” Robinson said. “We’ll see what happens.”

Aitken has applied to lead litigation related to the economic impact of Toyota’s recalls. Lawsuits there charge that Toyota vehicles lost value for owners and dealers after recall.

via Lawyers Vie For Lead Roles in Toyota Suits | Orange County Business Journal.

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Lawsuits against Toyota are consolidated | latimes.com

April 9, 2010 By
3rd generation Toyota Prius G (2009/5 - )
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More than 150 lawsuits against Toyota Motor Corp. over alleged sudden-acceleration problems and related injuries have been consolidated before a single federal judge in Santa Ana, about 30 miles from the automaker’s U.S. headquarters in Torrance.

That means that while federal investigations into the causes of the unintended speeding continue in Washington, Southern California now will be the focal point for assessing any blame.

In a ruling handed down Friday, the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation allowed more than 100 suits seeking class-action status, as well as at least 50 personal injury cases, to be adjudicated in a single federal courtroom. The seven-member panel assigned the case to Judge James V. Selna, who was appointed to the federal bench in 2003 by President George W. Bush.

The ruling applies only to federal cases and not lawsuits filed in state courts.

Toyota has been subject to an onslaught of legal filings since it announced its largest-ever recall last September for floor mats that can entrap accelerator pedals and cause unintended acceleration. Since then, Toyota has also recalled vehicles for gas pedals that can stick, as well as some Prius models for brake problems. In total, the Japanese automaker has issued nearly 10 million recalls for cars and trucks since last fall.

via Lawsuits against Toyota are consolidated – latimes.com.

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