Atlanta Personal Injury Lawyer Blog

In recent months, the public has watched Toyota’s seemingly innocent story about slipping floor mats unravel into a story about known mechanical defects that endangered the lives of millions of drivers. Attorney Richard Griffin has spent his entire professional legal career handling personal injury, wrongful death, worker’s compensation, and social security claims, and Attorney Richard Griffin is closely monitoring Toyota’s major safety recall.

According to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration(NHTSA) website, on February 09, 2010, the NHTSA released a Consumer Advisory for Toyota owners, for gas pedal entrapment by floor mats and sticky gas pedals for most of Toyota’s vehicle line-up for models ranging from 2005 to 2010. If you are an owner of an affected vehicle, Attorney Richard Griffin advises you to follow the NHTSA advisory.

On February 16, 2010, the NHTSA posted a news release announcing a probe into the timeliness of Toyota’s recent recalls. The probe involves three recalls for Toyota and Lexus vehicles, including the September 26, 2007 and October 6, 2009, recalls related to the entrapment of gas pedals by floor mats which were expanded on January 29, 2010, and the January 21, 2010, recall for sticking gas pedals. According to David Strickland, an administrator for the NHSTA, “our top priority is safety and we expect that all manufacturers address safety issues quickly and in a forthright manner.”

According to a USAToday.com report, Toyota is the first automaker to be involved in a major safety recall since stricter criminal penalties were enacted following the Ford Explorer rollover recalls over a decade ago. The above mentioned NHTSA press release also announced that if the NHTSA finds that Toyota has “violated its statutory obligations, the manufacturer could be liable for a maximum of $16.4 million in civil penalties.” However, Attorney Richard Griffin notes that it is sometimes difficult to uncover all of the evidence needed for civil penalties so it will be very interesting to see how this Toyota investigation pans out.

According to a USAToday.com report, the stricter criminal and civil penalties may have had the unintended consequence of automakers purposely limiting the number of test results or conclusions that are put into writing by company engineers. Attorney Richard Griffin believes such practices hamper the ability of a victim of an automaker’s negligence to recover damages in court.

Recently, Attorney Richard Griffin read a report that further strengthened his suspicions. According to a CNN.com report, a former Toyota in-house counsel quit in 2007, because of alleged “criminal acts” committed by the automotive giant. The CNN.com report further uncovered that, Toyota allegedly had a “pattern and practice of not producing memos, minutes, reports, and email’s,” during the course of discovery, according to former in-house counsel Dimitrios Biller. If true, Attorney Richard Griffin advises that such an abuse of the laws of discovery is criminal and highly unethical and cannot be tolerated.
Attorney Richard Griffin will continue to follow any new developments in the Toyota story. Attorney Richard Griffin advises that owner’s of the affected vehicles should contact their dealership and make sure that their vehicle is safe to operate, and owner’s should continue to follow Attorney Richard Griffin’s blog for any new developments. If you have been the victim of an accident involving a recalled vehicle or believe such, Attorney Richard Griffin advises you to seek legal counsel immediately to make sure your rights are protected.