The federal government’s$16.4 million civil penalty against Toyota Motor Corp. could bolster legal claims that the automaker committed fraud and racketeering. It also could assist plaintiffs’ attorneys in obtaining thousands of documents for use in their cases, according to plaintiffs’ lawyers and legal experts.
The penalty certainly doesn’t make the plaintiffs’ case for them — particularly since it deals specifically with the recall of accelerator pedals in its vehicles and not the more expansive issues associated with the electronic throttle system, a key allegation in many of the pending lawsuits.
