Toyota Litigation At Full Throttle

Lemon law attorney Sergei Lemberg, of Lemberg & Associates in Stamford, has made a career out of challenging automakers selling defective products, but he isn’t yet pursuing any litigation against Toyota.

Lemberg explained that as part of the lemon law, car owners must demonstrate that the defect hasn’t been fixed in 30 days. He said colleagues of his in other states have filed some lawsuits on those grounds, but due to the recalls, Lemberg doesn’t think that’s such a good idea.

“To bring a lemon law claim against a manufacturer on the assertion that the vehicle is defective I think is a little aggressive because the manufacturers are seemingly trying to fix it,” said Lemberg. “And until they fail to fix it…I don’t frankly know if the client I have can show the car is defective. Maybe other cars such as this are defective. But I’m not jumping the gun trying to sue Toyota.”

And not everyone thinks that Howard, the consortium leader, and the group of lawsuits seeking multiple billions of dollars will succeed.

“These kinds of lawsuits will have a rough time in court,” said James A. Henderson Jr., a professor at Cornell Law School who specializes in torts and products liability. “Courts will dismiss them. And in the long run, not very much will come of it.”

Despite the fact the lawsuits do not allege any physical injury and Toyota is working to fix the vehicles, Howard believes he still has a strong claim.

“There are damages among consumers because, no matter what happens here, the cars that people bought will be worth less, whether there’s a quick fix or a long fix,” said Howard.

By CHRISTIAN NOLAN

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