SAN DIEGO — Attorneys for Toyota Motor Corp. and people suing the Japanese automaker over sudden acceleration problems urged a federal panel Thursday to consolidate more than 200 lawsuits before a single judge, with Los Angeles federal court emerging as the favored venue.
Toyota’s lead lawyer, Cari Dawson of Atlanta, told the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation that the company favors combining all personal injury and wrongful death cases before the California court, along with all potential class-action lawsuits filed by Toyota owners who claim safety recalls caused the vehicles to lose value.
Los Angeles is close to Toyota’s U.S. headquarters in Torrance, where many key documents and witnesses crucial for all the cases are located, Dawson said. In addition, the first potential class-action case was filed there in November.
“All these cases have common issues. There will be significant overlap,” Dawson told the judges. “The Central District of California is uniquely qualified.”
Several of the 24 plaintiffs attorneys who spoke at the hearing also favored Los Angeles, which already has at least 34 pending Toyota cases, most of them before U.S. District Judge A. Howard Matz.
“We feel the center of gravity is in California,” said attorney Mark Robinson, known nationally for many class-action lawsuits and for negotiating a $128 million settlement in a case involving exploding fuel tanks on the Ford Pinto.
Others attorneys have said, however, that a different site might eliminate an appearance of hometown bias.
