The lawyers of Cohen & Malad, LLP have filed a class action lawsuit against Toyota on behalf of Judy Enderle of Carmel, an owner of a 2006 Toyota Avalon.

Eric Pavlack, attorney for Enderle and a partner at Cohen & Malad, explained, “Toyota’s abuse of American car buyers is disgusting. Toyota knew they were putting millions of lives at risk and lied about it. It doesn’t get much worse than that.”

Toyota recently recalled more than 5 million vehicles due to a defect that can cause uncontrollable acceleration. The lawsuit brings claims on behalf of Enderle and a proposed class of Indiana Toyota customers whose cars suffer from the faulty acceleration problem.

Despite mounting evidence in past years of the magnitude and severity of this problem, Toyota’s response was slow and so far incomplete. It only issued a recall after being pressured by the United States government, and even then, Toyota’s first recall blamed the problem on floor mats-a theory that not only has been largely discredited, but that misled Toyota owners into believing they could fix this deadly safety problem simply by removing their floor mats.

The latest recall attributes the uncontrollable acceleration to a sticky mechanism in the gas pedal, but, as Pavlack explained, “What’s the truth? No one knows. Many experts have expressed serious doubts this is the real culprit, instead blaming the vehicles’ electronic accelerator systems. Unlike other manufacturers who include failsafe safety systems to override potentially deadly problems with these systems, Toyota chose not to do so.”

It will be at least weeks or months before the suspected faulty part on the millions of Toyotas affected by this recall can be replaced. Even if this fixes the problem-which is doubtful at best-Toyota owners face the immediate and potentially life-and-death decision of whether to drive their cars in the meantime. On February 3, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Toyota owners should stop driving their vehicles until they receive the replacement part, only to reverse course later that day, leaving Toyota owners more confused than ever.

Founded in 1968, Cohen & Malad represents clients from throughout the United States in a variety of legal matters. For more information, please visit the firm’s website at: www.cohenandmalad.com.