Lawyers descend on Toyota in swarms

[m21sniper]

Toyota faces lawsuits over shrinking resale values

By Steve Gorman – Wed Feb 10, 8:32 pm ET

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Added to a wave of personal injury lawsuits stemming from Toyota's massive recall, the automaker faces a growing number of consumer class-action cases -- more than 40 so far -- over the shrinking resale value of its cars.

Consumer lawsuits seeking economic damages for diminished value or lost use of a recalled Toyota vehicle have been filed in at least 30 states, mostly in federal court, and could end up costing the car maker over $2 billion, Tim Howard, lead counsel for a team of law firms handling about half the cases, estimated.

All the federal suits would be consolidated into a single class action in the next three to four months, following a hearing before a panel of judges set for March 25 in U.S. District Court in San Diego, Howard said.

Toyota Motor Corp's U.S. operations are based in California. A company spokesman declined to comment.

Litigation against the cash-rich Japanese automaker has mounted quickly in the weeks since it began the biggest recall in its history for repairs to ill-fitting floor mats and sticking gas pedals it blames for instances of unintended, sudden acceleration in its vehicles.

This week a separate recall was announced for braking flaws reported in Toyota's top-selling hybrid car, the Prius, and U.S. regulators say they are reviewing dozens of complaints of potential steering problems in new Toyota Corollas.

Toyota has recalled some 8.5 million vehicles.

Lawsuits related to injuries and death are the most obvious cases being brought against Toyota. Up to 19 U.S. crash deaths over the past decade may be linked to accelerator-related issues at Toyota, congressional officials have said. An unknown number of injuries also are likely to spur legal action.

A class-action suit was filed in Los Angeles on Monday on behalf of U.S. shareholders accusing Toyota of misleading investors.

Howard, a Northeastern University law professor, said the consumer class actions are based on the premise that for Toyota car buyers "if you went to sell your car today, it's worth a lot less than it was two weeks ago."

Major automobile valuation services like Edmonds and Kelley Blue Book have downgraded the resale value of Toyotas by as much as 3.5 percent, and further decreases up to 6 percent can be expected, Howard said.

Toyota has long boasted one of the industry's highest resale values for its vehicles, as well as a superb record of reliability and safety -- all major factors in the company's success in the U.S. market .

Class-action lawsuits are predominantly a U.S. phenomenon, involving a large group of plaintiffs who bring similar claims to court collectively.

Toyota is not the first car company to face such legal actions. In 2008, Ford Motor Co agreed to payouts of up to $500 per plaintiff, in the form of discount vouchers, to settle a diminished-value case on behalf of 800,000 customers after a tire recall prompted concerns about potential rollover crashes in its Explorer sport utility vehicle.

(Reporting by Steve Gorman, Editing by Dan Whitcomb, Leslie Gevirtz)

[88-diamondblue]

Well we know one thing for sure. The lawyers will be able to kick back and take it easy after they get there cut and the owners will walk away with what $500 or less. Kind of like the GM brake law suit that the lawyer came out great and each owner got $60 to fix a $600 problem

[Rufblackbird]

hmm, maybe this is something I can look into. Been trying to sell the Tundra, and after the whole recall mess with the floor mats and gas pedal it's been nearly impossible to even get any interest on it...

[onewhippedpuppy]

That's the stupidest effing thing I've ever heard. Having bought a new Toyota in 2003, I don't recall any guarantees regarding resale value. I understand the value drop considering the current investigations/witch-hunts, but I doubt it's any worse than a comparable domestic. This is scumbag lawyers that smell blood in the water, nothing more.

Hell, I welcome it. Maybe I can afford to buy the wife a Sequoia.

[Eric 951]

This is the type of thing that the NHTSA or other gov. agency should prevent from occuring against automakers.

Suing over re-sale value drops--what about all of those unfortunates that purchased Aztecs or paid over sticker for PT Cruisers back in the day?

Clownish behavior by the plantiffs and attorneys.

[legion]

Originally Posted by 88-diamondblue

Well we know one thing for sure. The lawyers will be able to kick back and take it easy after they get there cut and the owners will walk away with what $500 or less. Kind of like the GM brake law suit that the lawyer came out great and each owner got $60 to fix a $600 problem

We essentially allow lawyers, as a class, to levy taxes against us that they collect for their own personal benefit, through the mechanism of the class-action lawsuit. The "fees" often dwarf the settlement. All they have to do is pay off the right judge. (Just ask Dickie Scruggs.)

[legion]

Originally Posted by Eric 951

This is the type of thing that the NHTSA or other gov. agency should prevent from occuring against automakers.

Suing over re-sale value drops--what about all of those unfortunates that purchased Aztecs or paid over sticker for PT Cruisers back in the day?

Clownish behavior by the plantiffs and attorneys.

Do you really think our current government is the least bit interested in tort reform? Who do you think pulls the string behind the scenes?

[flatbutt]

then it seems to be a good time to buy a Toyota

[m21sniper]

How do you figure that it's a good time to buy toyota?

I'd surely wait until the dust settled on all the defects and faults that are just now surfacing.

[Tervuren]

Originally Posted by legion

We essentially allow lawyers, as a class, to levy taxes against us that they collect for their own personal benefit, through the mechanism of the class-action lawsuit. The "fees" often dwarf the settlement. All they have to do is pay off the right judge. (Just ask Dickie Scruggs.)

I received a letter once where they where suing my ex-insurance company for falsely jacking rates, I'd had them do it to me but I caught it on my first statement.(They put me down as being in an at fault accident...) There where some other things to.

I did not reply, I knew most of any settlement would go straight to the lawyers - which is why they where trying to find as many people as possible. Wasn't worth it to me to play the game.

[TechnoViking]

Add to the greed of the lawyers the attitude of entitlement of their clients. We are a nation that believes any time anything doesn't go our way we are entitled to a payout or a bailout of some kind. Sickening.

[Noah930]

Originally Posted by Eric 951

Brilliant behavior by the plantiffs and attorneys.

Fixed it for ya. (BTW, I agree with Martin Smith's above post.)

[legion]

In cases like this, lawyers often go fishing for clients, not the other way around.

That tells you all you need to know about who is driving this nonsense.

[Shoepop]

Wonder if the lawyers will accept "discount vouchers" as their form of payment. SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURE they will.

[Burnin' oil]

The cases will settle. Everyone who bought a Toyota in the last eight years will receive a voucher for $250 off the puchase of a new Toyota. The named plaintiffs will receive $10,000 each for their troubles and the attorneys will receive fees as approved by the court but "not to exceed $10,000,000."

I know this because of all the class-action sttlement notices I have received over the years that mean crap for everyone but the lawyers. Blech.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

I agree - class action lawsuits are a joke. Completely worthless in obtaining remedy for the actual victims.

In this case though, I fail to see a clear victim. Let me get this straight - people are b1tching and complaining because the CARS they bought aren't worth as much? Who the hell buys a car - a TOYOTA no less - as an investment vehicle?

I wonder how many of these people are the same idiots that bought real estate expecting it to be an eternal fountain of earthly riches because "it never goes down in value". Guys, it's a CAR. They lose value inherently. Get over it! Next case!

[Jeff Higgins]

Originally Posted by legion

Do you really think our current government is the least bit interested in tort reform? Who do you think pulls the string behind the scenes?

American Thinker: The Lawyers' Party


The Democratic Party has become the Lawyers' Party. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are lawyers. Bill Clinton and Michelle Obama are lawyers. John Edwards, the other former Democrat candidate for president, is a lawyer and so is his wife Elizabeth. Every Democrat nominee since 1984 went to law school (although Gore did not graduate.) Every Democrat vice presidential nominee since 1976, except for Lloyd Bentsen, went to law school. Look at the Democrat Party in Congress: the Majority Leader in each house is a lawyer.


The Republican Party is different. President Bush and Vice President Cheney were not lawyers, but businessmen. The leaders of the Republican Revolution were not lawyers. Newt Gingrich was a history professor; Tom Delay was an exterminator; and Dick Armey was an economist. House Minority Leader Boehner was a plastic manufacturer, not a lawyer. The former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is a heart surgeon.


Who was the last Republican president who was a lawyer? Gerald Ford, who left office thirty-one years ago and who barely won the Republican nomination as a sitting president, running against Ronald Reagan in 1976. The Republican Party is made up of real people doing real work. The Democratic Party is made up of lawyers. Democrats mock and scorn men who create wealth, like Bush and Cheney, or who heal the sick like Frist, or who immerse themselves in history like Gingrich.


The Lawyers' Party sees these sorts of people, who provide goods and services that people want, as the enemies of America. And so we have seen the procession of official enemies in the eyes of the Lawyers' Party grow. Against whom do Hillary and Obama rail? Pharmaceutical companies, oil companies, hospitals, manufacturers, fast food restaurant chains, large retail businesses, bankers and anyone producing anything of value in our nation.


This is the natural consequence of viewing everything through the eyes of lawyers. Lawyers solve problems by successfully representing their clients, in this case the American people. Lawyers seek to have new laws passed, they seek to win lawsuits, they press appellate courts to overturn precedent, and lawyers always parse language to favor their side.


Confined to the narrow practice of law, that is fine. But it is an awful way to govern a great nation. When politicians as lawyers begin to view some Americans as clients and other Americans as opposing parties, then the role of the legal system in our life becomes all consuming. Some Americans become "adverse parties" of our very government. We are not all litigants in some vast social class action suit. We are citizens of a republic which promises us a great deal of freedom from laws, from courts, and from lawyers.


Today, we are drowning in laws, we are contorted by judicial decisions, we are driven to distraction by omnipresent lawyers in all parts of our once private lives. America has a place for laws and lawyers, but that place is modest and reasonable, not vast and unchecked. When the most important decision for our next president is whom he will appoint to the Supreme Court, the role of lawyers and the law in America is too big. When lawyers use criminal prosecution as a continuation of politics by other means, as happened in the lynching of Scooter Libby and Tom Delay, then the power of lawyers in America is too great. When House Democrats sue America in order to hamstring our efforts to learn what our enemies are planning to do to use, then the role of litigation in America has become crushing.


We cannot expect the Lawyers' Party to provide real change, real reform or real hope in America. Most Americans know that a republic in which every major government action must be blessed by nine unelected judges is not what Washington intended in 1789. Most Americans grasp that we cannot fight a war when ACLU lawsuits snap at the heels of our defenders. Most Americans intuit that more lawyers and judges will not restore declining moral values or spark the spirit of enterprise in our economy.


Perhaps Americans will understand that change cannot be brought to our nation by those lawyers who already largely dictate American society and business. Perhaps Americans will see that hope does not come from the mouths of lawyers but from personal dreams nourished by hard work. Perhaps Americans will embrace the truth that more lawyers with more power will only make our problems worse.

[flatbutt]

Originally Posted by m21sniper

How do you figure that it's a good time to buy toyota?

I'd surely wait until the dust settled on all the defects and faults that are just now surfacing.

Dealers will likely be cutting deals on vehicles that have the fixes in place.

[m21sniper]

Originally Posted by Tervuren

I received a letter once where they where suing my ex-insurance company for falsely jacking rates, I'd had them do it to me but I caught it on my first statement.(They put me down as being in an at fault accident...) There where some other things to.

I did not reply, I knew most of any settlement would go straight to the lawyers - which is why they where trying to find as many people as possible. Wasn't worth it to me to play the game.

I think you're probably mistaken. I got a letter for a class action suit regarding my alarm company using illegal practices. So i signed up and forgot about it.

About a year later i got a check for THREE GRAND!

[legion]

Sniper, your experience is the exception and not the rule. Generally the "victims" are compensated far less than the damages they suffer, and the lawyers get outrageous fees AND keep any unclaimed damages.

Also, do you think your alarm company actually caused you $3,000 worth of damage?