On Dec. 9, a federal judge gave Toyota Motor Corp. permission to depose 10 plaintiffs among the 200 class actions asserting economic damages tied to sudden uncontrolled acceleration — and gave both sides four months to identify which case will be the first to go to trial.
U.S. District Judge James Selna in Santa Ana, Calif., who is overseeing the multidistrict litigation (MDL) against Toyota, rejected Toyota’s request to depose plaintiffs in the 47 jurisdictions outside California where lawsuits have been filed. But he also dismissed the position of lead plaintiffs’ lawyer Marc Seltzer that the depositions were “unnecessary and burdensome.”
