Current Events

California owners of Volkswagen diesel cars caught up in the emissions-test rigging scandal might have a shot at getting the German automaker to buy back the vehicles.

A Seattle law firm filed a class action lawsuit against Volkswagen in Los Angeles federal court Monday demanding an immediate buyback under California emissions laws.

Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — Many Americans buying new cars these days are baffled by a torrent of new safety technology.

Some features will automatically turn a car back into its lane if it begins to drift, or hit the brakes if sensors detect that it's about to rear-end someone else. There are lane-change and blind-spot monitors, drowsiness alerts and cars that can park themselves. Technologies once limited to high-end models like adaptive cruise control, tire-pressure indicators and rear-view cameras have become more common.

Read More

BP will have 15 years to make payments under the more than $20 billion settlement reached over the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, a timeline that may have raised a few eyebrows when details of the deal were released Monday (Oct. 5). But experts say the slow payout could benefit Louisiana and other coastal states.

State officials have largely praised the settlement reached between BP, the federal government and five Gulf Coast states in July and formally filed in court Monday. Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell said the agreement is the fastest way for funds to make their way to areas hit hardest by the oil disaster.

Read More

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department on Monday announced a final settlement with the oil giant BP of $20.8 billion for its role in the disastrous 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, raising the total from the initial $18.7 billion settlement announced in July.

At either amount, it is the largest environmental settlement — and the largest civil settlement with any single entity — in the nation’s history.

Read More

A keyless ignition is that push button in your car that starts the engine instead of turning a key. It’s a feature that’s standard equipment on many new vehicles, but consumer safety advocates say keyless ignitions could pose a danger if you walk away with the fob and forget to turn off the car.

Noah Kushlefsky is an attorney who has represented several families whose loved ones have died from carbon monoxide poisoning after the key fob was removed and the car was left running. "When you're disassociated from the car by removal of the mechanical key, it's an easy step to forget" Kushlefsky said. "It's a senseless situation that should never occur and should never have occurred."

Read More

The Food and Drug Administration, hoping to prevent future outbreaks of deadly bacterial infections at U.S. hospitals, on Monday ordered makers of specialized medical scopes to undertake new studies of how the devices are cleaned.

The agency ordered a trio of manufacturers to conduct real-world evaluations on how well health care workers are cleaning and disinfecting the devices and what more might be done to prevent the spread of life-threatening infections.

Read More

Doctors have discovered a potential problem involving implanted heart valves that hundreds of thousands of people have received - they don't always open and close properly, possibly because a blood clot has formed that could raise the risk of stroke.

Read More.

West Virginia may be the first U.S. state to sue Volkswagen AG for deceiving car buyers after the Environmental Protection Agency said last month that the company had installed software to hide that its diesel engines exceeded pollution standards.

Attorney General Patrick Morrisey seeks restitution for Volkswagen customers, who he says paid as much as $6,855 extra for cars with the clean diesel engines, plus $5,000 in civil penalties per violation of West Virginia’s consumer protection law.

Read More

​Nissan is recalling 218,019 Versa subcompacts in the U.S. because road salt can corrode the metal springs in front, causing them to break.

If they coil springs fail, they can collapse and puncture the front tires. That scenario could cause the drivers of 2007 to 2012 Versas to lose control, resulting in a crash, Nissan tells the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in a filing.

Read More

Volkswagen AG is facing a new round of legal challenges after admitting it cheated on emissions tests for years, with French, German and Swiss lawyers taking action against Europe’s biggest carmaker.

The Paris prosecutor opened a probe into VW for deceit and putting people’s health at risk, while a German law firm, Tilp, filed a lawsuit with local authorities that will seek compensation for VW shareholders for the stock price drop since Sept. 20. A Swiss lawyer, Jacques Roulet, filed a criminal complaint alleging fraud against the carmaker as the country prepared to ban 130,000 vehicles on Oct. 5.

Read More

As claims against Volkswagen AG for selling “clean diesel” cars that cheated their way past emissions tests pile up across the U.S., the key question for lawyers is which court will wind up hearing them.

Lawyers for car-owners are already jockeying for their preferred venue in hopes that whichever judge winds up with the case will name them as lead counsel, a role that could be worth millions in legal fees.

Read more.