Class action update

[JohnLynn Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close JohnLynn]

I thought you may be amused to hear that I had an email reply from Bannister Law to a question I sent them an email about on 23 February 2019. Obviously things do not happen very quickly in the legal profession.
It begins by saying this:


Dear John

Thank you for your email. We apologise for the delay in our response.
We note you successfully registered your interest in the Toyota Class Action on our website on 21 December 2018. Please see the below information which may assist.

Well at least they apologised lol and after a bit of flannel this is the current state of affairs, I quote again from their email:

On 5 March 2020, the Court made orders regarding the next steps in the class action. These were made with the consent of both parties to the proceedings.



The orders permit the applicant to file an Amended Statement of Claim by 17 April 2020, and provide for Toyota to file a Defence in response by 29 May 2020.



In our group member update dated 21 November 2019, we reported that the Court had made an order on 7 November 2019 that the parties are to reach agreement in relation to the appointment of an independent referee to deal with the technical issues in dispute in the proceedings (referred to as a ‘reference’), including the general procedure for the reference. The orders of 21 November 2019 required that the parties were to seek to agree on these matters by 6 March 2020. In the most recent orders made this date has been extended to 12 June 2020 to allow for the Amended Statement of Claim and Toyota’s Defence to be filed.



Toyota has otherwise provided “discovery” of documents relevant to the case. This process is ongoing and the last tranche is expected to be provided by Toyota on 30 April 2020.



A further case management hearing was set down by the Court for 22 June 2020, however, as a result of the COVID-19 health crisis, the Court announced on 17 March 2020 that all listings requiring in person attendance would be vacated, and special alternative arrangements would be put in place for all listings that would ordinarily require in person attendance, including the use of telephones or other remote access technology. We expect to be contacted by the Court in the coming weeks regarding this and the future conduct of the case

[RPP Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close RPP]

Continents drift faster.

[JohnLynn Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close JohnLynn]

I had an email a couple of days ago with an update on "progress" it said amongst other waffle this:

The Court has ordered the appointment of an independent referee to deal with the technical issues in dispute in the Proceedings (referred to as a ‘reference’). The Court has ordered the reference to commence by 10 July 2020, with the Court to determine the identity of the referee based on nominations made by each of the parties.

The Court has also made various orders for the procedure by which the reference is to be conducted, including the process for providing documents to the referee and the process of providing the referee with a submission on what each party contends the referee’s findings should be. These steps are to all be completed by 24 July 2020.

By 29 July 2020, the referee is to indicate to the Court how long they expect to require to complete the reference and provide an opinion on the technical issues in dispute.
The Court has ordered the appointment of an independent referee to deal with the technical issues in dispute in the Proceedings (referred to as a ‘reference’). The Court has ordered the reference to commence by 10 July 2020, with the Court to determine the identity of the referee based on nominations made by each of the parties.

I am a bit surprised that nobody has posted about it, does anyone care or are you all happy with your DPF now?
How about John Cadogan as a referee, he has been a bit quiet lately!

[404pug Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close 404pug]

Touch wood. My 2016 seems fine with the updates. It burns for about 5 km every 260- 270 km depending on driving done. The light flashes as it should but the switch Toyota installed has never worked despite multiple attempts to get it working. I no longer go to Toyota now the warranty is up so that useless piece of crap probably will never work unless the class action forces them to do something.

[Guest Close Guest]

Longer it takes, more waffle there is.. the more Bannister get to charge each of the parties and Toyota/ whomever for it Some legal firms love to drag cases on for years..

[Brett1979 Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Brett1979]

John Cadogan couldn’t be considered a referee surely as this matter would have to be tackled in a professional manner. He doesn’t like the automotive industry because he can’t ever bring himself say anything positive about it. I don’t know how he gets occasional work on ACA... But then again I think I do as they have an agenda.

[JohnLynn Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close JohnLynn]

Yes quite agree but I did put forward his name as a joke, however thinking about it I don't know how they propose to find someone who could truly be called impartial. This is because in my opinion anyone who had enough knowledge of a DPF system to qualify would surely work in the industry and not necessarily for Toyota so could be considered biased against Toyota and if they worked for Toyota they could be considered biased towards them.
I think Piggy is right in saying the longer it takes the more there is in it for the lawyers, but I still struggle to understand why it took Toyota so long to publish the information they hold on the issue. Saying that they are probably well practised in withholding information as I have always thought they withhold it from their dealers let alone the poor old customer.

[Guest Close Guest]

As the lawyers are asking for discovery from Toyota they will take their time and make sure they have all pertinent information. Its sheep stations they are playing for here. The lawyers are playing to get rich from it.. And likely they will be the only ones that make anything from it.

[ripcurldane Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close ripcurldane]

I was sent an email by Bannister Law asking for me to join the class action. Just wondering if I should do so? As far as I can see there is one option apart from doing nothing where I am not liable to pay anything, is that right, so they make all their money from taking a percentage of the takings if they win.

[Guest Close Guest]

"If" they win, the funding company gets the major cut with a high % return, the Lawyers then take a major cut to cover the costs with a % as well. The original plaintiff then gets a cut, and anything left is divided between everyone else.

Its clear to see 2 parties will get rich from this, one will make an OK return and the rest will get a minor return. "IF" they win.

[JohnLynn Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close JohnLynn]

Yes I got the email asking me to sign up as well, it tried to be persuasive by saying that if they didn't get enough people signing they may not be able to go ahead. Of course I doubted this as they have spent enough already to just give up. Although I totally agree that the lawyers will be the main beneficiaries I would urge everyone to sign as there appears to be no risk and any money gained would be better than nothing.
I have been reading this forum and the Fortuner forum expecting to see lots of comments about the case. This is the only one I have seen, I find this quite hard to understand, is it because the forum members are mainly Toyota fan boys or owners who are reluctant to criticise a product that they have bought for fear of looking as though they have made a mistake with the purchase?

[Guest Close Guest]

There is plenty of talk about it on many forums and other social media. The more they get the more chance they have of proving it is an issue.

[Leethal Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Leethal]

My thoughts are if you have had no issue with the DPF why would you sign up? Nowhere in the email does it raise the question have you had any problem or issue with the DPF system, apparently having an actual faulty DPF is irrelevant.
I have opted out as I believe it is morally wrong to claim compensation for something that did not happen to me. My impression from the email is they are trying to subtly pressure owners to join the action so as to make the issue appear more widespread than it was/is.

As I have posted before my view is that yes there is/was an issue but I know how long it takes to first identify the core issue, then work out the fix and then get the fix approved if emission related. Yes Toyota certainly dropped the ball in communicating with owners but I was not surprised at how long it took to achieve a proper fix. Well, what at this stage appears to be a proper fix.

Lee

[404pug Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close 404pug]

And this week many of us will be getting a letter from Toyota extending the warranty on the DPF to 10 years and unlimited kilometres along with other benefits.

[Guest Close Guest]

And this week many of us will be getting a letter from Toyota extending the warranty on the DPF to 10 years and unlimited kilometres along with other benefits.

And this is the start of where it begins to get expensive for the class action defendant, lawyers and funding company.