class action

n what has widely been considered a rebuke to plaintiff law firms taking on Toyota for personal injury and economic claims resulting from the company’s unintended acceleration problems, a government study concluded this week that none of these car accidents were the result of electrical malfunctions. Instead, the report said, all unintended acceleration accidents were caused by either driver error or manufacturing problems like sticky accelerator pedals and brake pads. But despite the difficult news, plaintiff law firms are charging ahead with lawsuits against Toyota.

For the past few months, public opinion concerning the Toyota unintended acceleration lawsuits has largely favored the Japanese auto giant. But last week, a federal judge declined to dismiss 40 personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits against Toyota. Most notably, District Judge James Selna said he would address fraudulent concealment claims, which could carry significant punitive fees, and did not dismiss negligence, strict liability, or failure to warn counts against Toyota.

It has been a big year for class action lawsuits. Most recently, thousands of Toyota drivers have sued the Japanese auto giant for injuries and loss of investment resulting from unintended acceleration, and victims of the BP Gulf oil spill disaster are lining up to take on the British oil conglomerate in court. Both of those budding class action battles pale in comparison to the legal storm about to engulf WalMart, which is being sued for gender discrimination by more than a million women in potentially the largest class action suit ever. To put this in perspective, we decided to round up a list of other massive class action titans over the past two decades.

Last week, I pushed back against the assertions that Toyota plaintiffs will be disappointed by the fate of their lawsuits against the Japanese automaker that has recalled nearly 9 million vehicles worldwide this year. While unintended acceleration claims were unsuccessful against companies like Audi in the past, I wrote, Toyota’s mistakes are publicly well known, which could indicate that plaintiffs will be satisfied this time around.

If you thought Toyota’s unintended acceleration problems prompted a legal whirlwind, the aftermath of the BP oil spill in the Gulf will blow your mind. Lawsuits are already popping up on all sides of the issue. Local fishermen, farmers, and business people are suing BP; the federal government has launched a criminal investigation into the British oil giant; and environmental groups are now considering a challenge to the EPA over its use of harmful chemical dispersants in the spill. While BP isn’t likely to be economically devestated by cleanup or regulatory fees resulting from the spill, it’s a PR disaster that is already starting to take a toll.

While national TV will attempt to televise British Patroleum’s newest attempt to plug their massive leak in the Gulf of Mexico this week, class action lawsuits continue to pop up against the embattled oil company. The Economist reports that in the two weeks following the April 20 spill alone, more than 70 legal challenges sprouted up, many of which were class action suits on behalf of clumps of victims. Will these lawsuits devastate the British oil giant?