As Toyota scrambles to contain its sudden acceleration crisis, another potential blow to the automaker's credibility is lurking in the form of a former staff attorney who is accusing the Japanese automaker of concealing safety issues from the public.
Dimitrios Biller of Pacific Palisades, Calif., who defended Toyota in product-liability cases until 2008, alleges in a federal lawsuit that the automaker has a long history of hiding and destroying evidence as part of a strategy orchestrated from company headquarters in Toyota City, Japan.
Toyota and its ex-employee have been involved in a tangle of litigation in state and federal courts for months, centered on 6,000 internal documents obtained by Biller. He said the documents show a pattern of illegal behavior in which Toyota fraudulently withheld evidence in product-liability claims.
At Toyota's urging, the documents have been kept confidential by court order since last summer. But now a California arbitrator is considering whether they can be made public. Attorneys for Toyota and Biller made their final filings in the matter last week, and a decision is expected soon.
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