Lawyers with pending civil suits related to faulty Takata airbags are trying to put the brakes on the manufacturer’s $1 billion criminal plea deal, claiming it will end up being used as a tool to release its U.S. subsidiary and several automakers from civil liability.
Attorneys Kevin Dean, a member of Motley Rice in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, and Thomas Willingham of Atlanta’s Pope McGlamry, raised their concerns in a pair of objections filed on Monday before U.S. District Judge George Caram Steeh of the Eastern District of Michigan. Steeh held a hearing Monday on whether to preliminarily approve the Takata agreement. (Read the objections here and here.)
