Tort Reformers Dirty Little Secrets: Concealing Safety Issues

One of the dirty little secrets that is not mentioned by the tort reform crowd is that major corporations often conceal safety related issues from the public and the legal community because revealing them would create significant liability in a mass-produced product. Whether Toyota is guilty of this type of dangerous design defect concealment is the subject of an interesting lawsuit between Toyota and one of its former managing counsel.

In his whistleblower’s lawsuit, attorney Dimitrios Biller alleges that Toyota forced him, over a period of several years, to withhold information regarding rollover accidents causing injury or death, depriving victims of information that would prompt them to commence litigation or pursue already commenced litigation to improved conclusions. If the allegations are true, they could result in the reopening of over 300 hundred substandard roof cases over the past two decades and the filing of cases that could have been pursued and weren’t.

Toyota, of course, calls Biller’s statements "inaccurate and misleading," and, further, calls him a "disgruntled employee" retaliating for a forced resignation. However, if these allegations are true, Toyota is looking at the beginning of a financial nightmare. The vehicles at issues are popular sport utility vehicles like the Toyota 4Runner. According to Biller, who defended the company in many such lawsuits, Toyota concealed National Highway Traffic Safety Administration information that these vehicles were prone to rollover accidents and had weak roofs which lead to thousands of serious injuries and deaths.

Tab Turner, an Arkansas attorney who represented a pregnant woman and her fetus who were both brain damaged as the result of a 4Runner rollover accident agrees that the allegations, if proven, will call into question all of the settlements, verdicts and judgments which involved the vehicles in question and/or in which Biller participated.

Biller received to a $3.7 Million severance package when he left Toyota, saying he was harassed and intimidated by Toyota management and has been treated for psychiatric problems resulting from this conduct. Toyota claims that the severance agreement prevented Biller from discussing or disclosing company information and that he has violated that agreement. Since he was an attorney for the company, there may be attorney-client privilege or confidentiality issues involved with the allegations and their presentation in the case.

Lawsuit Financial would not be surprised if the allegations made by Mr. Biller were true. Corporate defendants have long practiced these types of ‘delay, deny, confuse and refuse’ tactics; the deliberate and/or fraudulent concealment of vital information when requested by the plaintiff is, most likely, more common than we realize. Lawsuits like Mr. Biller’s are important because they alert the public to important safety issues and the probability that fear of expensive, multiple, litigation will often lead to concealment of safety concerns.

Lawsuit Financial strongly advises all consumers to use all investigatory tools available on the internet or print/broadcast media, from consumer protection advocacy groups or publications, from safety advocacy groups, and from national or local trial lawyer associations. An educated consumer is more often a safer consumer. When purchasing a potentially dangerous product from a company, don’t take the company’s word for its’ safety; do your homework. You’ll be glad you did.

If you have been seriously injured and need an attorney in your area who specializes in the type of incident causing your injury, please consider calling Lawsuit Financial and taking advantage of our free attorney referral service. If you already have an attorney and need lawsuit funding to help pay household bills, medical expenses, mortgage payments, utility bills or any other important expense, Lawsuit Financial is here to assist you in your time of need.