Tampabay: Lawsuits against Firestone piling up

Already, about 40 lawsuits have been filed, asking judges to give them class-action status in which customers throughout the nation could join. One was filed last week in Pinellas County.

In addition, more than 100 suits have been filed in state and federal court on behalf of individuals who have been injured or whose family members have been killed in accidents involving the tires. Many of those were filed before the recall, dating back more than a decade, but there has been a steady stream since then, as well.

"Every day, there's a new suit," said Sean Kane, a partner at Strategic Safety, a research company that has studied Firestones for years. "In terms of sheer numbers, this is above and beyond any tire-related problem we've ever seen."

Lawyers say most suits represent legitimate claims by those who suffered. But others may just be a way to try to benefit from the scare, they say.

More lawsuits are sure to be on the way. Lawyers throughout Florida handling tire cases report receiving dozens of calls from Firestone customers inquiring about their options.

Last month, Bridgestone/Firestone recalled about 6.5-million ATX, ATX II and Wilderness AT tires used on sport utility vehicles and light trucks. Nearly 2-million tires have been replaced since the second-largest tire recall was announced Aug. 9.

Federal investigators have warned that another 1.4-million Firestone tires that the company refused to recall are dangerous and should be replaced. The company disputes that allegation, but announced last week that it will replace the tires for free if customers are concerned or will reimburse up to $140 per tire for competitors' models.

Officials with Bridgestone/Firestone recently apologized to the American public and vowed to find the cause of the problem. They did not return phone calls last week to comment about the lawsuits.

Since the recall, the most frequently filed claims are class-action suits, which are asking for a number of remedies including an expanded recall, reimbursement for defective tires not included in the recall or damages for those who drove a vehicle equipped with tires that they worried might cause accidents.

None has been certified a class-action suit by a judge yet, said Mike Peacock, a Tampa lawyer who filed the one in Pinellas last week.

For some people, especially with minor injuries, filing individually may be too costly. They may be better off joining a class-action suit, said Greg Barnhart, a West Palm Beach lawyer who filed a claim last week in Pinellas.

Class-action suits give the common man the ability to take on big business by contributing little money. But once someone is involved with one of these suits, they are stuck with the outcome unless they opt out early in the process.

Kane, of Strategic Safety, said class-action suits also can serve a valuable purpose by pressuring companies to take action, such as expand recalls. "Every pressure point is needed," he said. "Sometimes (that can) get things done with more swiftness than the government can do."

Class actions serve a purpose, said Bruce Kaster, an Ocala lawyer who has been suing tire manufacturers for 15 years, but the number of lawsuits concerns him. He said one probably will be certified and the rest eventually will be dismissed.

Though there has been a proliferation of class-action suits, some lawyers say those with serious injury cases should file individual claims because each accident is different and there may be more money in a separate claim.

In many cases, customers did not realize defective tires may have played a role in their accident until the publicity about Firestone came to light in the last couple months. Last week, three such suits were filed in the Tampa Bay area.

In Pinellas, the cases involve a Florida State University student who was killed and a woman who broke her neck when their tires failed. In Hillsborough, a woman suffering from back and arm problems sued after the tire on her Ford Explorer separated.

Last month, three suits in Circuit Court in Orange County said that defective radial tires severely injured a boy and caused two deaths in separate accidents. Two families filed similar lawsuits in Jacksonville. Other cases are pending in Brevard County and Cape Coral.

Federal investigators are looking into what role, if any, the tires had in 88 deaths and more than 250 injuries. They are trying to sort out what caused accidents in which tires suddenly lost their tread or suffered blowouts and are looking into the combination of flawed tires and the design of sport utility vehicles, which have a higher center of gravity and are likely to roll over.

The Florida Attorney General's Office also is investigating the design of certain tires and whether the companies deceived consumers by keeping problems secret, said Les Garringer of the Attorney General's Office in Tallahassee.

Recent national reports indicate the company had data pointing to safety problems years before the recall. A tire recall began in 16 other countries more than a year ago, but U.S. authorities were not notified.

Lawyers say the companies could have prevented the onslaught of legal action by admitting wrongdoing, recalling all the defective tires and settling any claims.

"There is a right way to do this and a wrong way," Barnhart said. "Instead of taking the bull by the horns, they tried to cover it up. Cover-ups don't work. It's cheaper to settle cases."

-- Times researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.

Interested?

For information about the Firestone tire recall, log onto www.firestone.com or call (800) 465-1904.

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