lawsuit advice

Still getting emails about joining group lawsuits. Any advice? Why join? why not join? Judge tells VW They need to come up with solution by April 21st. Thanks in advance.

If You join or not, You are in!

The multiple Dieselgate lawsuits will almost certainly be consolidated into a single class action which will cover a defined class (likely class definitions are (1) all owners of the affected vehicles, or (2) all owners on the date the scandal became public, though no doubt other arrangements are possible). All members of that class will be part of any resolution reached unless they specifically opt out, at which point they'd be free to pursue their individual claims on their own (and at their own expense).

If you don't sign on with a CA lawyer, the courts will eventually pick one of the filed lawsuits and put everyone affected into the class. You will have the option to accept whatever settlement the class gets, or opt out and file your own suit.

If you do sign on, the agreement will state that the lawyer can drop you for any reason, but that if you decide to drop out you must pay him/her for everything he/she has done on your behalf. VW offers compensation but you have to sign away your right to sue? Big chunk of that goes to the lawyer.

kr70 said:

Still getting emails about joining group lawsuits. Any advice? Why join? why not join? Judge tells VW They need to come up with solution by April 21st. Thanks in advance.

Click to expand...

I just commented on another forum I belong to about this. I will not be apart of the class action lawsuit if it comes to that which in my view does not benefit the consumer in this case. I was part of one on my new home built in 2005, that was built with some major defects and got a check for $4500.00 to cover anything that was non-structural on my own. Well that didn't even make a dent and the lawyers told me to take it or leave it. If I cannot register my TDI I will tell the bank they can have it and will seek a Jury trial on my own for money lost due to me purchasing and not leasing. The papers you get from what ever Law Firm will have another sheet giving you the option to opt out as the one on my house did. The arguing factor from the law firm in the beginning said that if we as a family go it alone it could take years for a settlement. So we joined the "class action" and 6 years later we got very little for the amount of damage that was done by shady work. In the end we would have been better off finding a personal attorney for our house and an argument to dump the house leaving the bank to go after the builder on their own but we "signed" against all present and future lawsuits against the builder by agreeing to be part of the class action lawsuit. So I respectfully decline any Class Action Lawsuit. I just wanted to add in an edit thing here. If the vehicle isn't able to register; you the consumer( that word "consumer" will become a very powerful word for you if you go solo)have a greater chance to be compensated as an individual than part of a group because it affects your livelihood in terms of providing for your family and the security of you employment. If I was sitting on a jury and someone brought suit against their bank/dealership/manufacturer for this...you'd win. But ...don't take my advice your responsible for your own actions. This should not come down to a class action. It does because there are certain people out there looking to make it a payday for them on the backs of consumers. What VW did was wrong... but let the system work itself out. It only affects you if you are unable to properly register it or the "fix" is outside of what the sticker said on the window when it comes to performance/mpg/efficiency etc; at the time of purchase.

DanB36 said:

The multiple Dieselgate lawsuits will almost certainly be consolidated into a single class action which will cover a defined class (likely class definitions are (1) all owners of the affected vehicles, or (2) all owners on the date the scandal became public, though no doubt other arrangements are possible). All members of that class will be part of any resolution reached unless they specifically opt out, at which point they'd be free to pursue their individual claims on their own (and at their own expense).

Click to expand...

I think it will be done by State...due to the different regulations governing the import of vehicles ...especially California .

The only advice I have is don't commit to ANY course of action until we find out what VW is proposing to do (which, hopefully, we will get a better idea on 21 April or shortly thereafter). For the moment, don't do ANYthing. Don't respond (at all) to the solicitations from lawyers.

If it turns out that VW proposes something that is acceptable to you, then by doing nothing, you have not committed to pay anything to any of the vultures (lawyers).

If it turns out that what VW is proposing is not satisfactory to your situation ... then by waiting, at least you know what is on the table.

Right now, we don't know what is on the table. It is too soon to commit to paying a lawyer a portion of whatever ends up happening.

It is entirely possible that some sort of dispute resolution mechanism will be set up to allow the non-routine claims to be handled without going through court (and paying lawyers). This potentially could, for example, address the situations in which people have already sold their cars between 18 Sept 2015 and now, and sold at what could be considered below what would otherwise have been a normal market value.

At the moment, we do not know if any of this is going to happen.

For the moment ... do NOTHING.

Embassy_Marine said:

I just commented on another forum I belong to about this. I will not be apart of the class action lawsuit if it comes to that which in my view does not benefit the consumer in this case. I was part of one on my new home built in 2005, that was built with some major defects and got a check for $4500.00 to cover anything that was non-structural on my own. Well that didn't even make a dent and the lawyers told me to take it or leave it.

Click to expand...

Just out of curiosity was your house built by K&B Builders in California? Was your attorney Freeman and Freeman?

As the others said...my advice would be to wait it out for now. There's no reason to commit to anything at this point (i.e. Signing anything from an attorney).

Embassy_Marine said:

I just commented on another forum I belong to about this. I will not be apart of the class action lawsuit if it comes to that which in my view does not benefit the consumer in this case.

I was part of one on my new home built in 2005, that was built with some major defects and got a check for $4500.00 to cover anything that was non-structural on my own.

Well that didn't even make a dent and the lawyers told me to take it or leave it. If I cannot register my TDI I will tell the bank they can have it and will seek a Jury trial on my own for money lost due to me purchasing and not leasing. The papers you get from what ever Law Firm will have another sheet giving you the option to opt out as the one on my house did.

The arguing factor from the law firm in the beginning said that if we as a family go it alone it could take years for a settlement. So we joined the "class action" and 6 years later we got very little for the amount of damage that was done by shady work.

In the end we would have been better off finding a personal attorney for our house and an argument to dump the house leaving the bank to go after the builder on their own but we "signed" against all present and future lawsuits against the builder by agreeing to be part of the class action lawsuit.

So I respectfully decline any Class Action Lawsuit. I just wanted to add in an edit thing here. If the vehicle isn't able to register; you the consumer( that word "consumer" will become a very powerful word for you if you go solo)have a greater chance to be compensated as an individual than part of a group because it affects your livelihood in terms of providing for your family and the security of you employment.

If I was sitting on a jury and someone brought suit against their bank/dealership/manufacturer for this...you'd win. But ...don't take my advice your responsible for your own actions. This should not come down to a class action.

It does because there are certain people out there looking to make it a payday for them on the backs of consumers.

What VW did was wrong... but let the system work itself out. It only affects you if you are unable to properly register it or the "fix" is outside of what the sticker said on the window when it comes to performance/mpg/efficiency etc; at the time of purchase.

Click to expand...

I fixed your post for you so that it would be readable.

You are correct. Class action lawsuits for the most part only benefit the lawyers. Sure, I'm going to give up my rights so some POS lawyer can get rich and I might get pennies back in damages.............

I'm a class action lawyer and going to chime in here. It's unbelievable to me how people criticize lawyers for making money when they've won your case. Would you work for free if you invested 7 years and $180,000 in your education, plus all the years it took you to be good enough to successfully win a national class action for almost a million people? You'd be getting a big fat nothing from VW if it weren't for the lawyers. Class action law suits are extremely expensive to prosecute, even when it seems open and shut like this. Judges don't just rely on public opinion or what they read in the news. You can't just hand a judge a journal article written by engineering students at some school in California and expect him to hand you a new car. Lawyers have to prove their cases and that's neither easy or cheap. Lawyers take on all the risk and bear all the expense unless they win. Yes, sometimes they can profit greatly when they do, but not before they've both invested a ton first. If you think you can do better on your own, do it. Otherwise, when you get that settlement offer in the mail, you can thank the lawyers who won it for you. Personally, I think it's the medical profession that's ripping people off today. How many hundreds of dollars do you pay for health insurance a month? A physician spends 5 minutes on you and charges more than I average in two hours. Ever seen someone's medical bills after a 2 hour surgery? Not sure why people pick on lawyers, but I'm personally glad there are some really good ones working on my behalf in this situation.

my advice? if you are wanting to sue vw this site is not for you and i welcome the door to not so gently hit you on the way out.

This is for enthusiast not people who want to sue vw because there car is to good on fuel and performs great....if you bought it for emissions i dont believe you, you should have bought a prius or tesla

TDIL said:

I'm a class action lawyer and going to chime in here. It's unbelievable to me how people criticize lawyers for making money when they've won your case. Would you work for free if you invested 7 years and $180,000 in your education, plus all the years it took you to be good enough to successfully win a national class action for almost a million people? You'd be getting a big fat nothing from VW if it weren't for the lawyers. Class action law suits are extremely expensive to prosecute, even when it seems open and shut like this. Judges don't just rely on public opinion or what they read in the news. You can't just hand a judge a journal article written by engineering students at some school in California and expect him to hand you a new car. Lawyers have to prove their cases and that's neither easy or cheap. Lawyers take on all the risk and bear all the expense unless they win. Yes, sometimes they can profit greatly when they do, but not before they've both invested a ton first. If you think you can do better on your own, do it. Otherwise, when you get that settlement offer in the mail, you can thank the lawyers who won it for you. Personally, I think it's the medical profession that's ripping people off today. How many hundreds of dollars do you pay for health insurance a month? A physician spends 5 minutes on you and charges more than I average in two hours. Ever seen someone's medical bills after a 2 hour surgery? Not sure why people pick on lawyers, but I'm personally glad there are some really good ones working on my behalf in this situation.

Click to expand...

Spoken like a true lawyer !!!!

TDIL said:

. Personally, I think it's the medical profession that's ripping people off today. How many hundreds of dollars do you pay for health insurance a month? A physician spends 5 minutes on you and charges more than I average in two hours. Ever seen someone's medical bills after a 2 hour surgery? Not sure why people pick on lawyers, but I'm personally glad there are some really good ones working on my behalf in this situation.

Click to expand...

I will be getting off topic here. But there is an answer for you. Do you know why doctors charge that much for their service? It is because they need to spend about 1/3 of their revenue on malpractice insurance to be insured against lawsuits conducted by people like you. On top of that doctors have to perform lots of unnecessary often expensive tests just in case they get sued, in order to cover their butts. No other nation on the planet has has so many lawyers per capita as United States so lawyer need to invent a need to keep busy. The amount of lawyer advertising in this country is absurd "We will fight for your rights" etc. I have traveled abroad quite a bit and the phenomenon of "I will sue you" is only prevalent in the US. Every other country just gets by fine without so many lawsuits lawyers and people being turned against each other. At least doctors do something productive for the society. Lawyers for a change extract money from one party to another and keep good chunk of that money to themselves. Absolutely nothing of value gets created in the process. Lawyers only pray on people sense of victimhood to get some business. Yes VW lied to the government but not to me. So the problem is between the government and VW. It is pathetic to see so many people whining about how their life got affected because they found out that their car pollutes more then what government specified. The same people have no problem driving gas guzzling SUV's. I really hope that the solution will be a big fine for the VW paid to the government. The cars on the road will be grandfathered ie will be allowed to operate and registered just like normal. And thus there will be no basis for lawsuits because even the lamest excuse of (my car has lost resale value) will be nullified. This way government gets their money, VW is punished and hopefully learns a lesson, people get to keep their cars unmodified and lawyers get nothing.

TDIL said:

I'm a class action lawyer and going to chime in here. It's unbelievable to me how people criticize lawyers for making money when they've won your case. Would you work for free if you invested 7 years and $180,000 in your education, plus all the years it took you to be good enough to successfully win a national class action for almost a million people? You'd be getting a big fat nothing from VW if it weren't for the lawyers. Class action law suits are extremely expensive to prosecute, even when it seems open and shut like this. Judges don't just rely on public opinion or what they read in the news. You can't just hand a judge a journal article written by engineering students at some school in California and expect him to hand you a new car. Lawyers have to prove their cases and that's neither easy or cheap. Lawyers take on all the risk and bear all the expense unless they win. Yes, sometimes they can profit greatly when they do, but not before they've both invested a ton first. If you think you can do better on your own, do it. Otherwise, when you get that settlement offer in the mail, you can thank the lawyers who won it for you. Personally, I think it's the medical profession that's ripping people off today. How many hundreds of dollars do you pay for health insurance a month? A physician spends 5 minutes on you and charges more than I average in two hours. Ever seen someone's medical bills after a 2 hour surgery? Not sure why people pick on lawyers, but I'm personally glad there are some really good ones working on my behalf in this situation.

Click to expand...

Thank you for the settlement I received. The coupon I got for a free video rental will sure help me out a lot. I hope your $1.5 million share does the same for you.

Here we go with the anti lawyer dog pile.

My 2 cents as a business owner.

The people who hate lawyers the most, are the ones who should have gone to one in the first place. A Lawyer is your weapon and shield, and like any weapon and shield it must be carefully chosen, but to go unarmed into court is moronic.

Ive saved myself tons of money and time by consulting lawyers BEFORE a situation turns to hell. Surprising how many people instead prefer to get raked over the coals by someone elses lawyer, then spend a lifetime learning nothing from the experience while complaining bitterly about all lawyers.

Savageman69 said:

my advice? if you are wanting to sue vw this site is not for you and i welcome the door to not so gently hit you on the way out.

This is for enthusiast not people who want to sue vw because there car is to good on fuel and performs great....if you bought it for emissions i dont believe you, you should have bought a prius or tesla

Click to expand...

Well, I'm an enthusiast who absolutely wants to sue VW. They deserve it. Have you looked at your resale and trade-in values lately? They have absolutely tanked. Tried to sell or trade it in? You'll be in for a shock. You might love your car, but beauty's in the eye of the beholder; and about 99% of the car buying public now think your TDI is pretty darn ugly. Someday you might even want a new one, and you'll be stuck with a car not even a Volkswagen dealer will want to buy. Plus, if the EPA won't let us keep our cars, the $1400 I've just spent on maintenance and repairs this year will have been a total waste.

You know who is costing me all the time, money and grief trying to deal with this? Volkswagen engineers and executives. It wasn't a little mistake, it was a huge lie. And if they lied about something as substantial as emissions standards, are they lying about the car's safety features too? Whether we like our car or not, every TDI owner who bought it before the news hit has been screwed by the company we've been so devoted to. I thoroughly enjoy driving my car, but am willing to face the reality about what VW has done.

PS - Thanks, dropnosky. There are a few bad apples in every bunch. But I believe lawyers play an important role in our society, and I enjoy seeing peoples' lives improved through my work. We often carry heavy weights on our shoulders... Better to have us on your side.

I was the top plaintiff in the TJX credit card scandal. Spent 1 year talking with lawyers, banks, Secret Service, TV and news paper,
Got a $20 gift card . Learned a lot how the system is stacked against the consumer!
Just my 2000 cent !!

TDIL said:

Well, I'm an enthusiast who absolutely wants to sue VW. They deserve it. Have you looked at your resale and trade-in values lately? They have absolutely tanked. Tried to sell or trade it in? You'll be in for a shock. You might love your car, but beauty's in the eye of the beholder; and about 99% of the car buying public now think your TDI is pretty darn ugly. Someday you might even want a new one, and you'll be stuck with a car not even a Volkswagen dealer will want to buy. Plus, if the EPA won't let us keep our cars, the $1400 I've just spent on maintenance and repairs this year will have been a total waste.

You know who is costing me all the time, money and grief trying to deal with this? Volkswagen engineers and executives. It wasn't a little mistake, it was a huge lie. And if they lied about something as substantial as emissions standards, are they lying about the car's safety features too? Whether we like our car or not, every TDI owner who bought it before the news hit has been screwed by the company we've been so devoted to. I thoroughly enjoy driving my car, but am willing to face the reality about what VW has done.

PS - Thanks, dropnosky. There are a few bad apples in every bunch. But I believe lawyers play an important role in our society, and I enjoy seeing peoples' lives improved through my work. We often carry heavy weights on our shoulders... Better to have us on your side.

Click to expand...

lol i sold my mk6 jetta for 13,000 dollars and it had 225,000kms....im not complaining and i went and bought a touareg for a decent price....maybe in merica things have tanked but they havent here....or were all just not scared

CNGVW said:

I was the top plaintiff in the TJX credit card scandal. Spent 1 year talking with lawyers, banks, Secret Service, TV and news paper,
Got a $20 gift card . Learned a lot how the system is stacked against the consumer!
Just my 2000 cent !!

Click to expand...

That settlement resulted in jail time for someone and literally millions of impacted people. I would not have expected much, even 20 buck gift cards to a million people is 20 million dollars lost in income value. Wasn't the breach approaching 94 million accounts?

the courts take things like this into account. Usually they will impose a penalty, but will not put a business out of business if they can avoid it.

What I learned was in a lawsuit for you to receive any compensation you must prove hardship. Like illness, lost of income, real loses .
The laws protected the big businesses in that lawsuit.
One of the lawyers here could help use on how it works!

Funny how many are ranting about the VW scandal, yet I highly doubt anybody bought these cars for being "green", more likely for their excellent fuel economy which results in more money in ones pocket book.
Then once warranty is over, off comes the emmissions and the car get modded.

fossill said:

Funny how many are ranting about the VW scandal, yet I highly doubt anybody bought these cars for being "green", more likely for their excellent fuel economy which results in more money in ones pocket book.
Then once warranty is over, off comes the emmissions and the car get modded.

Click to expand...

Those that are going to modify the emissions system on a four door economy car are in a small minority...like under 1%. Keep in mind that it just seems like "so many people do it" because the vast majority of them are going to be members here.

If you could just undo a few bolts, remove a canister, install a x < $500 part, and have that be it...sure...there might be more takers. The average person is just not going to go through the expense (ex. $1,000+ exhaust, $500+ ECU re-flash, etc.) to delete the DPF, unless they have no better option (i.e. The only other option to keep the car rolling is dropping $3,000+ at the dealer to have the DPF replaced).

dropnosky said:

Surprising how many people instead prefer to get raked over the coals by someone elses lawyer, then spend a lifetime learning nothing from the experience while complaining bitterly about all lawyers.

Click to expand...

And this is exactly why people hate lawyers. Sure you get sued by a douche bag then you need a lawyer. It because some lawyer looking for business convinced the douche bag to sue you in the first place. No other nation on this planet has so many absurd lawsuits like US. As I said lawyers turn people against each other just to make profit for themselves. It is their non productive business.
Go ahead and sue VW, the people to profit the most from this will be the lawyers not you.

fossill said:

Funny how many are ranting about the VW scandal, yet I highly doubt anybody bought these cars for being "green", more likely for their excellent fuel economy which results in more money in ones pocket book.
Then once warranty is over, off comes the emissions and the car get modded.

Click to expand...

That is exactly why I bought the Passat TDi. I was looking at the Hybrid Lincoln MKZ and after seeing the claims from VW I figured the "Clean-burn" diesel was more green than charging batteries with A/C power. AND to boot the fuel mileage was better!

k^2 said:

And this is exactly why people hate lawyers. Sure you get sued by a douche bag then you need a lawyer. It because some lawyer looking for business convinced the douche bag to sue you in the first place. No other nation on this planet has so many absurd lawsuits like US. As I said lawyers turn people against each other just to make profit for themselves. It is their non productive business.
Go ahead and sue VW, the people to profit the most from this will be the lawyers not you.

Click to expand...

That is a gross generalization that is totally inaccurate, but believe what you wish to believe. This is a special group of lawyers usually called "ambulance chasers". Does this happen? Sure. Are all lawyers like that? Obviously not.

Personally i think suing VW is a tremendous waste of time and effort.

k^2 said:

...I really hope that the solution will be a big fine for the VW paid to the government. The cars on the road will be grandfathered ie will be allowed to operate and registered just like normal. And thus there will be no basis for lawsuits because even the lamest excuse of (my car has lost resale value) will be nullified. This way government gets their money, VW is punished and hopefully learns a lesson, people get to keep their cars unmodified and lawyers get nothing.

Click to expand...

This is borderline moronic. Folks who say this stuff are the same ones who rail against "socialism" and "big government." Class actions permit private enterprise to police what government nor individual consumers can't. Yes they are messy and sometimes dissatisfying in outcome but it is the transgressors - not the government, the consumers, or the lawyers - whose choices put the wheels in motion.

I'm glad class action lawyers have a seat at the table. I want to be sure the government doesn't "forget" the nearly 600,000 American consumers affected. As to those who deny that any consumer was affected, I say you MAY be right. We can't know until VW reveals the proposed "fix" that, six plus months later still eludes them. My personal hope is that the solution allows me to keep my 3.0 as-is, no modification. That will satisfy me greatly. But if the solution is reduced mileage/less power/less durability/more maintenance, unleash the hounds.

Clean diesel madness

IDK really if the car runs clean. I just wanted to save fuel. In my opinion the government made the limits so low that it was nearly impossible to make anything pass. I think VW overshot how clean and efficient they could make the engine and because it was so clean there was not enough emissions to clean up.
You need emissions to run a catalytic converter. No unburned fuel and the cat will not light. Also urea needs somthing to clean up. If they would have just kept the low pressure system and put a urea set up on it it would clean up. Unfortunately they went the other path and painted themselfs into a corner. The only way out was to walk over the paint or Put a hole in the wall and climb through it. The hole in the wall was software.

Really who we need to sue it the government who allowed these to pass. Surely vw is at fault as well but the government failed. We need so sue them so they will let us keep the vehicles though the life of them. The damages are because they did not properly test them and let become APPROVED for US use. If they make us take them off the road we all need to sue them....

As we're commenting on class action lawsuits, I received my AT&T Mobility Class Action settlement check last week. $18 and some change! That'll show em!

TDIL said:

I'm a class action lawyer and going to chime in here. It's unbelievable to me how people criticize lawyers for making money when they've won your case. Would you work for free if you invested 7 years and $180,000 in your education, plus all the years it took you to be good enough to successfully win a national class action for almost a million people? You'd be getting a big fat nothing from VW if it weren't for the lawyers. Class action law suits are extremely expensive to prosecute, even when it seems open and shut like this. Judges don't just rely on public opinion or what they read in the news. You can't just hand a judge a journal article written by engineering students at some school in California and expect him to hand you a new car. Lawyers have to prove their cases and that's neither easy or cheap. Lawyers take on all the risk and bear all the expense unless they win. Yes, sometimes they can profit greatly when they do, but not before they've both invested a ton first. If you think you can do better on your own, do it. Otherwise, when you get that settlement offer in the mail, you can thank the lawyers who won it for you. Personally, I think it's the medical profession that's ripping people off today. How many hundreds of dollars do you pay for health insurance a month? A physician spends 5 minutes on you and charges more than I average in two hours. Ever seen someone's medical bills after a 2 hour surgery? Not sure why people pick on lawyers, but I'm personally glad there are some really good ones working on my behalf in this situation.

Click to expand...

The problem is our legal system. Law is written by lawyer which is a serious immoral counterdiction. A lot like the fox guarding the hen house.

Law is not about justice, fairness or what is morally right, it is about point of law which lawyers have a stranglehold on.

Laws should be written so that they are navigable by the average lay person so that self serving folks like yourself will not have the means to keep bending the average person over with an unfair an unjust legal system designed by lawyers to serve their best interests.