James Carter Interviewed by the Wall Street Journal Japan

March 18, 2010

 

James Carter Interviewed by the Wall Street Journal Japan

 

http://jp.wsj.com/US/Economy/node_39079

 

One and a half months have been passed since the Toyota announcement on January 21 about their decision to recall millions of cars produced intense media attention. The words and gestures, which were nothing, if not contrite, of Akio Toyoda, the president of Toyota, who testified at the hearing at the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on February 24, was favorable accepted in general. However, as he officially apologized for their safety lapses and another mentioned a possibility the company would take a measure beyond the recall, the possible new wave of litigation against Toyota has entered the picture. 

 

Mr. Jim Carter, founder of class action law firm in the State of Georgia, who has represented thousands of clients, is one of the attorneys who are currently suing Toyota. His previous cases extensively include the big automakers of the world, such as Nissan, Toyota, Isuzu, Renault, and Volkswagen. According to the complaint that Mr. Carter submitted to the United States District Court in the Southern District of Georgia, the plaintiffs are three women, who are residents of the state of Georgia on behalf of the U.S. citizens all over the country who bought Toyota cars which a known history of unintended sudden acceleration from March 1, 2000 to the present.

 

One of the three individual plaintiffs actually experienced an incident of sudden unintended acceleration while driving her 2000 Camry. Her car left the road and struck a tree. In this incident her vehicle was totally destroyed. In the complaint, Mr. Carter insisted on ruling against Toyota’s defection, claiming that “It has been broadcast nationally that Toyota has been deceptive, slow and incompetent...” “Toyota has progressively blamed SUA incidents on the driver, on the floor mats and on the accelerator pedals of its vehicles. In so doing, it has become a ‘moving target,’ blaming first one thing and then another.” “Toyota’s intentional conduct in failing to equip its vehicles with brake override controls has caused the plaintiffs to sustain monetary damages and Toyota to be unjustly enriched."

 

The Wall Street Journal Japan interviewed Mr. Carter 2 days after he filed the complaint with the court. 

 

――What’s the situation of litigations against Toyota?

 

 

Mr. Carter: The Toyota publicity has informed millions of people of defects in the Toyota vehicles.  That information has caused thousands of Toyota owners to seek some form of compensation for the problems with their cars.  The result is that several dozen lawsuits have been filed in various states seeking redress for property damage.  They are class actions because no one individual has a claim large enough to permit the investment in money and time in order to conduct the lawsuit properly and get to the root cause of the Sudden Unintended Acceleration problem.  The most likely result is that the suits will be consolidated and that Toyota will negotiate a settlement with a committee of lawyers and class representatives so that a global resolution can be achieved. It (Mr. Toyoda’s apologies) could (trigger more lawsuits), but it probably will not.  The forgiving nature of the American public makes for less, not more animosity.

 

 

――Do you think that the House representatives fairly dealt the issue at the hearing?

 

Mr. Carter: I think the lawmakers probably came off looking unfair because they cannot resist the temptation to play to the galleries.  In that regard they make unnecessary speeches and, depending upon their perception of their role, they tend to be unnecessarily abrasive. 

 

 

――Is there any difference for you, as an attorney, whether the case is against Japanese automakers or the American ones?

 

Mr. Carter: In most respects they are the same.  The primary difference is that the Japanese always take cover under the "language barrier."  Because their design and development processes and record keeping differ from those of most US car makers, one must be careful to learn the documentation system of the Japanese companies.  It is also very difficult to get the Japanese companies to produce the design engineers responsible for the design or manufacturing defect in question.  Even if the responsible person works in an American facility and uses English every day, they will insist on being deposed with an interpreter. 

 

――Now the Federal Grand Jury has been engaged. Why has the issue of recall made such a serious shift?

 

Mr. Carter: In some instances, this is actually a case of persons seizing an opportunity to grab the spotlight.  On the other hand, there are some prosecutors who are attacking Toyota for securities fraud for failing to disclose the potential risk to the company of having a financial downturn because of the products' defects.

 

――What is your thought about Mr. Dimitrios Biller, a former staff attorney for Toyata’s US sales division, who is accusing a “culture of secrecy” at Toyota?

 

Mr. Carter: On the one hand, the lawyer may be regarded as a knight in shining armor.  On the other hand, he may eventually be regarded as a "snitch" in which case, he will lose much of his credibility, such as the backlash which John Dean experienced right after he exposed President Nixon.  Whistleblowers tend to have a hard life, because the companies put them under the microscope and stop at nothing to discredit them.

 

――Some Japanese experts point out that “Toyota bashing” shows the signs of “Japan passing”; that the U.S. Government now considers China as their more important alliance partner. What would you say to the theory?

 

Mr. Carter: It is good propaganda for the Japanese, but probably has nothing to do with the case.  Japan could wreck the economy single handedly just as could China.  The US debt to Japan has been beyond critical for decades.

Copyright @ 2009 Wall Street Journal Japan KK. All Rights Reserved

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