Former Toyota Attorney Accuses Toyota Motor Corp of Hiding Safety Issues

February 7, 2010 (by Horatio Algren) According to reports by a Toyota injury lawyer, a former attorney for Toyota Motor Corp. has alleged Toyota has concealed safety issues.

Toyota Motor Corp. while in the middle of the accelerator system defects are alleged of hiding safety issues from the public by a former Toyota attorney. The attorney Dimitrios Biller who defended Toyota in product liability cases until 2007 has now alleged the company of conspiring to hide safety issues from the public in federal court.

The federal lawsuit was filed last summer claiming that the company headquarters in Toyota City Japan schemed to hide and destroy evidence. Biller a resident of Pacific Palisades and Toyota have been involved in litigation in both state and federal court for months and involves 6,000 internal documents Biller is holding. 

The attorney claims the documents show illegal maneuvers by Toyota in which they fraudulently withheld evidence in product liability cases. The documents have been kept confidential by a court order since last summer at Toyota request, and now a California arbitrator is debating if the documents will be made public. 

This could cause closed Toyota cases to be reopened by attorneys of plaintiffs, if the arbitrator rules in Biller’s favor. While the documents are not directly related to the sudden acceleration defects the Toyota Motor Corp. is dealing with currently, it will affect the company’s credibility, which is already suffering. 

According to statements by Biller, the Toyota Corporation does not feel anyone should be aware of any issues outside of the company.  Celeste Migliore a spokeswoman for Toyota stated that Biller acquired the documents while in the employ of Toyota and is bound legally not to make the documents public. If Biller does according to Migliore he is in violation of a signed $3.9 million severance agreement with the Toyota Motor Corp. 

According to Biller he noticed problems with Toyota approximately two years after his employment began with the company in 2003. He stated he found many documents that were not provided to him while preparing a rollover case, including vehicle test reports from outside attorneys. There were as many as 300 cases and the documents Biller found could be potentially damaging to Toyota.

Biller said he believes Toyota feels they do not have to follow rules or turn over documents and due to resistance from his supervisors to clear the matter up Biller left the automaker in 2007 after signing a severance agreement.

According to Biller he has been under mental health treatment since late 2005 and states it is due to the stress of his employment with Toyota. Biller has a lawsuit pending against the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office, where he worked for approximately three months after leaving Toyota and has sued the attorney representing him during the negotiations for his severance package.

In part of Billers complaint against Toyota he states they hid evidence in a rollover case, in which a woman was paralyzed.