That's the right way to stop lawyers!
DaimlerChrysler Sues Lawyers Over Lawsuit
By Ben Klayman
DETROIT (Reuters) - In a move meant to turn the tables on a group it has described as greedy,
DaimlerChrysler AG (NYSE:DAJ - news) said on Wednesday it sued plaintiffs' attorneys who filed a lawsuit
that cost the automaker millions of dollars and damaged its reputation.
The world's No. 5 automaker said the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia, is seeking a
multimillion dollar damage award from the Philadelphia law firm of Greitzer & Locks and Maryland attorney
William Askinazi. DaimlerChrysler characterized the class action as frivolous.
Also named in the case was a Philadelphia resident, Brian Lipscomb, who was a plaintiff in the class-action
lawsuit brought by the defendants in Pennsylvania against DaimlerChrysler and other automakers earlier this
year.
Officials at the Pennsylvania law firm were not available to comment, but Askinazi, who has not seen the
lawsuit, called it a ''bullying tactic.''
''On its face, it's ridiculous in that it's clearly a ruse to distract the courts around the country from the very real
issue of whether or not Chrysler manufactured a defective auto seat that's still involved in millions of cars,'' he
added.
DaimlerChrysler officials see it differently.
''Class-action lawsuits should be used to resolve legitimate claims and not serve as a rigged lottery for trial
lawyers,'' Lew Goldfarb, DaimlerChrysler vice president and associate general counsel, said in a statement.
''For too long, trial lawyers have been exploiting class actions, turning these lawsuits into a form of legalized
blackmail. They launch frivolous cases because they believe that just the threat of massive class actions filed in
many states can coerce a company into settlement. It's time they started paying for some of the costs of abusing
our legal system.''
In June, Greitzer & Locks and Askinazi filed a class-action lawsuit in Philadelphia against DaimlerChrysler,
General Motors Corp (NYSE:GM - news). and its Saturn unit, and Ford Motor Co (NYSE:F - news).,
alleging the seat design in their vehicles was unsafe, DaimlerChrysler said.
Similar cases were filed in four other states and actions were taken to do the same in 30 more states.
DaimlerChrysler and Ford were dropped from the Pennsylvania lawsuit in the fall after Lipscomb, the plaintiff in
the case, was shown to have never owned vehicles made by either automaker, DaimlerChrysler and Ford
officials said.
DaimlerChrysler also was dropped from the lawsuit in New York, but faces similar charges in cases filed in
courts in Maryland, New Hampshire and New Jersey, the German-U.S. automaker said.
DaimlerChrysler has increasingly taken a hard line against what it sees as abusive lawsuits.
Last month, the automaker was successful in having a class- action lawsuit in Illinois thrown out that covered
1.2 million Jeep Cherokee sport utility vehicle owners. Plaintiffs' attorneys in that case had sought more than
$500 million in damages for ''excessive'' engine noise.
In September 1998, the former Chrysler Corp., which merged with Germany's Daimler-Benz AG last year,
won an $850,000 judgement against two St. Louis attorneys DaimlerChrysler alleged took confidential
information while employed by one of the firm's outside law firms and then used that information to file
class-action lawsuits against the automaker. The decision was upheld on appeal this fall.
In 1996, Chrysler got a class-action lawsuit filed by two Seattle attorneys dismissed after the court determined
the case had been filed without client permission. The automaker then sought unsuccessfully to have the
attorneys pay the company's legal fees.
DaimlerChrysler's stock was down 3/8 at 73-3/8 a share in late trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
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