A recent article, “Legal Fees at Add to Toyota Recall Costs” reports that the Toyota recall “could cost Toyota more than $2 billion.”  The article reports at least 41 class action suits have been filed against Toyota, seeking damages for car value loss and at least 13 individual lawsuits claiming deaths and injuries caused by unwanted acceleration of vehicles.  “Toyota customers will demand cash”, said lawyer Michael Louis Kelly who has filed two such suits in California, but acknowledged “I don’t expect them to reimburse for the lost value of these cars.”  “It important to distinguish the personal injury cases from the product-disappointment or lemon cases”, said law professor Carl Tobias of the University of Richmond in Virginia.

Toyota Vice-President Mike Michels said the company did not have an estimate on the potential litigation costs.  He said the company has liability insurance, without elaborating on its extent, and that it doesn’t cover warranty costs, which were budgeted before the recalls.