Dr Shezad Malik Law Firm has offices based in Fort Worth and Dallas and represents people who have suffered catastrophic and serious personal injuries including wrongful death, caused by the negligence or recklessness of others. We specialize in Personal Injury trial litigation and focus our energy and efforts on those we represent.
Four Toyota Motor Corp. units were named as defendants in a racketeering lawsuit that claims the companies collaborated to sell cars they knew were unsafe.
The lawsuit, filed Feb. 8 in federal court in Covington, Kentucky, targets Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America Inc., as well units that produce Toyota’s Camry and Avalon models and handle leasing and engineering.
Legal expenses and damages could add billions to Toyota’s recall costs, with dozens of suits pending over injuries and deaths and at least 30 seeking class-action status over lost use of vehicles.
Toyota Motor Corp.’s massive recalls for acceleration and braking problems are creating a huge legal liability for the company — and Toyota owners may share in the pain.
Toyota faces dozens of lawsuits over injuries and deaths attributed to safety problems, with many more suits expected. Lawyers and legal experts said the lawsuits could be particularly expensive for the automaker if plaintiffs prove that Toyota was aware of problems but failed to correct them.
Toyota said that its dealers are working overtime to fix sticking gas pedals on some 2.1 million recalled vehicles at a rate of 50,000 per day and have so far repaired 225,000 cars.
Toyota recalled 3.8 million vehicles last fall to repair what it called floor-mat “entrapment” of the gas pedal, and an additional 2.1 million cars last month to fix what it calls an unrelated sticky-gas-pedal problem.
The parents and daughter of a man killed in a car crash have sued the bar that allegedly sold alcohol to the driver who was not only drunk, but also underage.
Michael Slay Chapman died on Nov. 27 when the vehicle in which he was riding was struck by a vehicle driven by Bo Pillsbury. Before the incident, the 19-year-old Pillsbury had been drinking at the Dixie Dance Hall in Beaumont’s Crockett Street Entertainment District.
Chapman’s parents, Wayne and Teresa Chapman, and his daughter, Zoe Jane Chapman, filed a lawsuit against Dixie Host Ltd. on Feb. 1 in Jefferson County District Court.
“Despite being obviously intoxicated and/or showing obvious signs of intoxication that a reasonable person, especially a provider of alcohol should recognize, employees of Defendant continued to serve Bo Pillsbury alcohol,” the suit states.
“After drinking for an extended period of time at the Dixie Dance Hall, Bo Pillsbury was allowed to leave the premises and drive away. As he was driving in an intoxicated state, Bo Pillsbury lost control of his vehicle and struck a vehicle in which Michael Slay Chapman was a passenger.”
A Texas attorney is moving at full speed with a proposed class action against Toyota over accidents allegedly caused by stuck gas pedals, even as the automaker announced it has a remedy to put the brakes on the problem.
Representing Corpus Christi residents Sylvia and Albert Pena III and others similarly situated, attorney Hilliard filed suit against Toyota Motor Corp. and Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc. The suit was filed Jan. 29 in the Corpus Christi Division of the Southern District of Texas.
“This is a civil action against defendants based upon information and belief that defendants, and each of them, designed, manufactured, distributed, and sold certain automobiles equipped with the Electronic Throttle Control System with Intelligence (ETCS-i) and/or Electronic Throttle Control System (ETC) that is defective in that it will allow sudden unintended acceleration of the vehicle engine,” wrote Hilliard.
Toyota said that it would recall 437,000 of its 2010 Priuses and other hybrid models worldwide because of a glitch in the braking system. 155,000 are in the United States and another 53,000 in Europe.
Separately, Toyota also recalled 7,300 of its latest-model Camrys in the United States to fix a power steering pressure hose in the engine compartment that may be the incorrect length. This could cause a hole in the brake tube and deplete the braking fluid, interfering with braking.
Toyota has told dealers it’s preparing a plan to repair the brakes on thousands of hybrid Prius cars in the U.S.
In a message sent last night to dealers, a Toyota group vice president, Bob Carter, said the company is working on a plan and will disclose more details early next week. More than 100 drivers of 2010 Prius cars have complained that their brakes seemed to fail momentarily when they were driving on bumpy roads. The U.S. government says the problem is suspected in four crashes and two minor injuries.
Faced with an unprecedented recall of millions of vehicles and rivals swooping in on its customers, the public relations machine at Toyota Motor Corp — one of the most savvy brand-creators in Asia — is floundering.
Toyota has consistently played down recurring complaints of unintended acceleration, breaking what PR experts said is the cardinal rule in crisis management: assume the worst.
A Cincinnati couple has filed a lawsuit against Toyota charging fraud and negligence over a safety issue involving gas pedals that has caused a massive auto recall.
The lawsuit, filed in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court, seeks class-action status on behalf of all Ohio residents who have bought or leased vehicles Toyota-manufactured vehicles subject to the recall. Attorney Chesley, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of Hugh and Pamela Cox, said Wednesday that the class could involve thousands of Ohio residents.
The trip was one that Guadalupe Alberto had made many times before, just a few miles through her neighborhood to the small grocery store her family had owned for years.
It was a Saturday afternoon, April 2008, and Mrs. Alberto, a 77-year-old former autoworker, was driving her 2005 Toyota Camry. Within blocks of her home, witnesses told police, the car accelerated out of control, jumped a curb and flew through the air before crashing into a tree. Mrs. Alberto was killed instantly.
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