Jessy Edwards  |  October 15, 2021

Category: Auto News

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toyota lawsuit, toyota unintended acceleration
(Photo Credit: Jaiz Anuar/Shutterstock)

Toyota Unintended Acceleration Lawsuit Overview:

  • Who: Toyota Motor Corporation and Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. 
  • What: Toyota purchasers with personal injury and wrongful death claims are working through a settlement with the auto manufacturer.
  • Where: Nationwide

A settlement process with Toyota owners who suffered “personal injury or wrongful death” due to unintended acceleration is slowly being resolved, the parties say.

Counsel for both the plaintiffs and the defense filed a joint status report on the Intensive Settlement Process on Oct. 12 in a California federal court. 

The update says the parties were “continuing to make good progress as the parties attempt to resolve the various personal injury, wrongful death and/or property damage cases pending before this  Court and in other courts.”

The news comes more than seven years after Toyota first agreed to pay a staggering $1.2 billion to avoid prosecution for covering up severe safety problems with “unintended acceleration” and continuing to make cars with the defect. 

When proposed, it was called one of the largest – if not the largest – automobile defect settlement in U.S. history.

That class action settlement did not resolve personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits related to the unintended acceleration defect, rather it paid customers for the depreciation of their vehicles. 

Personal injury and wrongful death cases were sent to state and federal judges to oversee. Since then, Toyota said it was “pleased to report” it had resolved or was on the way to resolving 549 personal injury or wrongful death matters.

According to Toyota, for the remaining four cases pending in the multidistrict litigation (MDL) and nine pending cases in a separate Joint Council Coordination Proceeding (JCCP), all but one had requested to go through the intensive settlement process.

“Significantly, there are currently zero MDL cases and only one JCCP case that have gone through the entire ISP process that have been certified by the Settlement Special Master as completing the process without resolving,” the report says. 

Toyota said it also has agreements in principle to resolve 254 matters outside of the MDL and JCCP Proceedings. The next hearing in this case is set for Oct. 18. 

Were you involved in the MDL? Let us know your experience with the settlement in the comments. 

The plaintiffs in the Toyota unintended acceleration class action lawsuit are represented by Steve W. Berman, Lisa M. Hasselman, Elaine T. Byszwewski, Robert B. Carey, Lee M. Gordon and Barbara M. Mahoney of Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP; Frank M. Pitre, Aron K. Liang, Nancy Leavitt Fineman and Joseph W. Cotchett of Cotchett Pitre & McCarthy LLP; and Marc M. Seltzer, William R.H. Merrill, Robert S. Safi, Rachel S. Black and Steven G. Sklaver of Susman Godfrey LLP, among others.

The Toyota Unintended Acceleration Class Action Lawsuit is In Re: Toyota Motor Corp Unintended Acceleration Marketing, Sales Practices and Products Liability Litigation, Case No. 8:10-ml-02151, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.


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