More Misery for Toyota: The Class-Action Lawyers are Circling

Even if Toyota repairs its cars and settles its problems with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and Congress, it will still have a gathering blizzard of class-action lawsuits to contend with.

For trial lawyers, deep-pocketed Toyota is an irresistible target. And their outrage is not likely to come cheap: Other industries, such as tobacco, asbestos and breast implants, have paid out billions in class-action claims.

According to the Injury Board, a group composed in large part of personal-injury lawyers, there are at least a dozen class-action cases pending against Toyota already, including cases in California, Florida, Louisiana, Colorado, Texas and Ohio. Through the American Association for Justice (AAJ), member attorneys can even buy, for $179, an audio package entitled "Dangerous Defects in Automobiles: Hot Topics in Crash-worthiness Cases," with a section on sudden acceleration cases in Toyotas.

Is it a "Sue Toyota" kit? "It's just an education program," said AAJ spokeswoman Jennifer Fuson. "It helps attorneys prepare cases by sharing information."

The lawsuits are pursuing claims for injuries and deaths, as well as for the loss in value of Toyotas overall as a result of unintended acceleration. Fox Business reports on that: Matthew Cairns, the president-elect of the Voice of the Defense Bar (DRI), an organization of 22,000 attorneys who represent defendants in civil litigation, said that the multiplicity of class-action cases could be seen as "piling on" Toyota. He said that it's likely that there will be a hearing to combine the cases into a single national class action "so Toyota won't be dragged into 40 jurisdictions, with separate discoveries."

Many, if not most, of the class-action cases contend that unrecognized electronic interference with "throttle by wire" systems on Toyotas is at the heart of the problem. Here are a few of the pending cases:

· Texas: Hillard Munoz Guerra filed in federal court in Corpus Christi, representing Texas-based owners of many different Toyota models. The problem is "unique to the design of the electronic throttle control system," said attorney Robert Hilliard. The case was filed on behalf of the Pena family, which experienced a sudden acceleration episode in a 2008 Avalon. · California: The firm McCuneWright filed a national case in November, with Los Angeles County residents Seong Bae Choi (2004 Camry) and Chris Chan Park (2008 FJ Cruiser) representing the class. "Neither driver error nor floor mats can explain away many--frightening instances of runaway Toyotas," says McCuneWright attorney David Wright. "We think this lawsuit is necessary to save lives."

· Colorado: Burg Simpson Eldredge Hersh and Jardine filed in federal court on behalf of a Lakewood man who experienced sudden acceleration. Toyota, the attorneys said, "has known for several years about the unexpected acceleration problem--"

· Ohio: Attorney Stan Chesley, who filed a class-action case in Cincinnati, said, "It is clear that Toyota is hiding something under the carpet. Toyota has long known about the defect and has done too little, too late to correct it."

· Dee Miles, an attorney with Beasley Allen in Montgomery, Alabama, said he is handling three separate class-action cases, one involving the Prius braking systems and two related to unintended acceleration. He said that a Multi-District Litigation (MDL) legal panel in the federal court system will consider options for consolidating the cases and that he expects "the cases to be centralized into a single federal court."

The suits aren't confined to the U.S. Not to be outdone by their southern neighbors, a group of 30 Toyota owners in New Brunswick, Canada is representing a class of 600 owners. Tony Merchant of the Merchant Law Group argues that throttle by wire is a cause, and he asserted that Toyota's mechanical fix won't end the problem.