Summary: Robbins Ross Alloy Belinfante Littlefield has filed one of the first cases against Volkswagen in light of the recent scandal against the car manufacturer.
According to Atlanta Business Chronicle, Robbins Ross Alloy Belinfante Littlefield LLC, an Atlanta law firm, filed a lawsuit on September 22 in federal court against Volkswagen on behalf of their client, Joel Silverman. Silverman, a Georgia resident, purchased a Volkswagen Jetta Sportwagen in 2009.
The suit requests class action status for all Georgia owners of Volkswagen vehicles that are impacted by the recent scandal. Volkswagen admitted that software had been installed in millions of its four-cylinder Volkswagen and Audi diesel vehicles that was purportedly used to evade emissions tests. According to Reuters, Volkswagen allegedly rigged emissions tests on 2.8 million diesel vehicles in Germany, almost six times as many as it may have manipulated in the United States.
Volkswagen recently retained Kirkland & Ellis in light of the scandal.
The lawsuit precedes what many predict will be thousands of suits against the car manufacturer. The CEO has also resigned over the scandal.
The principal of the firm, Richard L. Robbins, said, “It’s amazing how many calls we’ve gotten from owners of these vehicles wanting to know whether they can file suit. We saw this issue and started getting calls from car owners who were obviously very distressed about this.”
Last month, Volkswagen was forced to sell their Suzuki shares.
Robbins, who expects to add a number of other plaintiffs to the lawsuit, added, “We believe it’s appropriate to have a suit representing Georgia auto owners.”
Robbins remarked that the case will probably be around for some time. He said, “At the end of the day this is going to cost them billions of dollars.”
An Athens, Georgia law firm called Blasingame, Burch, Garrard & Ashley P.C. also filed a suit against Volkswagen on September 23 on behalf of a man who purchased a 2014 Volkswagen Golf. It also seeks class action status.
Last year, General Motors recalled over 2 million vehicles.
It is predicted that hundreds of suits will be filed across the United States, and at some point, they will be consolidated into either one or a few cases.
Fortune reveals that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has announced that it will begin testing diesel vehicles’ ability to meet emissions standards under real-world driving situations.
Source: Atlanta Business Chronicle
Photo credit: quoteserv.com, robbinsfirm.com (Robbins)