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Toyota Accelerator Recall Lawsuits Could Cost $10 Billion

In the last two weeks a few class-action lawsuits against Toyota have been announced (one by the Orange County DA, one in Phoenix, and a few others). Central to all of these lawsuits is the allegation that Toyota knowingly mislead consumers in regards to unintended acceleration problems, which is technically known as “consumer fraud.”

For the record, there are degrees of fraud. Fraud as a result of stupidity or negligence is different than intentional acts that will knowingly injure another party. For example – accidentally writing a bad check from an account you closed is definitely considered fraud, but it’s not the same as stealing someone else’s checkbook and writing what you know to be a bad check. Intent is important.

Toyota’s problem is, it’s very difficult to argue that their actions weren’t intentionally designed to hurt consumers. Here’s how allegations of fraud at Toyota break down (and why they’re probably going to lose billions when it’s all over):