Disputed Toyota documents could shed light on safety accusations

[divideandconquer]

Disputed Toyota documents could shed light on safety accusations
An arbitrator is asked to unseal the documents in a federal case in which a former company lawyer claims the automaker concealed evidence.


As Toyota Motor Corp. scrambles to contain its sudden-acceleration crisis, another potential blow to the automaker's credibility is lurking in the form of a former Toyota attorney who is accusing the automaker in federal court of concealing safety issues from the public.

A ruling expected soon in the suit could make public thousands of internal Toyota documents that show the company conspired to hide evidence in court, according to Dimitrios Biller, who defended Toyota in product liability cases until 2007.

Biller, of Pacific Palisades, alleged in a federal lawsuit filed last summer that the automaker has a long history of hiding and destroying evidence as part of a strategy orchestrated from company headquarters in Toyota City, Japan.

Toyota and Biller have been involved in a tangle of litigation in state and federal courts for months, centered on 6,000 internal documents obtained by Biller. He says the documents show a pattern of illegal behavior in which Toyota fraudulently withheld evidence in product liability cases.

At Toyota's urging, the documents have been kept confidential by court order since last summer. But now a California arbitrator is considering whether they can be made public. Attorneys for Toyota and Biller made their final filings in the matter last week, and a decision is expected soon.

If the arbitrator rules in Biller's favor, a legion of plaintiff's attorneys are waiting to reopen long-closed cases against Toyota.

Although the allegations don't directly concern Toyota's growing sudden-acceleration headache, the Biller case is another assault on the automaker's credibility, which has taken a hit in the current crisis.

"Toyota is a very secretive corporation," Biller, 47, said in an interview. "It doesn't believe anybody outside the corporation deserves to know what is going on inside, even if it kills somebody."
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<http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-toyota-lawyer3-2010feb03,0,7374631.story>