Given the extensive use of mobile products on the nation’s roadway system and the vast number of units in the field, motor vehicle manufacturers are often pursued by the personal injury plaintiffs’ bar as a source of monetary recovery for their clients. The firm has represented many of the world’s motor vehicle manufacturers (automobiles, commercial trucks, motorcycles, recreational vehicles, etc.) in products liability actions presented to juries in state and federal courts from California, to Texas, to Florida, to Maine. Automotive products liability litigation often involves state of the art technology and complex questions of science, engineering, and automotive medicine. The nature of the claims made include vehicle on-road stability and rollover resistance, roof structures and deformation characteristics, primary and supplemental passenger restraints, and accident avoidance, vehicle control features. Technical disciplines span mechanical engineering, metallurgy, physics, dynamics, fuel systems, combustion engineering, fluid dynamics, hydraulics, electronics and electrical engineering, biomechanics, injury mechanisms, and more. Legal issues involve federal regulations promulgated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, federal statutory and decisional law on preemption, the Class Action Fairness Act, the Magnusson-Moss Warranty Act, and numerous state common and statutory laws applicable to strict liability, warranty, unfair and deceptive practices, and negligence.
Results:
- The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts rejects the Massachusetts State Automobile Dealers Association's (MSADA) bid to prohibit direct sales of Tesla motor vehicles to consumers
- The Massachusetts State Automobile Dealer Association v. Tesla Motors, Inc. and Tesla Motors MA, Inc.
- Saez Rivera v. Nissan Mfg. Co.
- Hebert v. General Motors et al.
- Zeolla v. Ford Motor Company
- Arthur Decato v. American Honda Motor Company, Inc.
- Brown/Ferguson v. Ford Motor Company et al.
- Trombley v. Ford Motor Company
- Knoster v. Ford Motor Company
- Pretty Ulm v. Ford
