Automotive manufacturer Toyota Motors today agreed to settle the long-running class action brought by Simmons Hanly Conroy clients and others arising out of economic losses that millions of Toyota owners suffered following a spate of unintended acceleration events in 2009 and 2010. The total value of the settlement is more than $1.1 billion, with an additional sum of $200 million in attorneys’ fees being paid by Toyota to plaintiffs’ counsel, including Simmons Hanly Conroy, as well as Toyota’s reimbursement of plaintiffs’ counsel’s expenses in the amount of approximately $27 million. The settlement followed three years of hard-fought litigation in which Simmons Hanly Conroy shareholder Jayne Conroy played a leading role, having been appointed by United States District Judge James Selna as a member of the plaintiffs’ leadership team in the case, and in which several Simmons Hanly Conroy clients are serving as representatives of the class of Toyota owners economically injured. In connection with the settlement, Ms. Conroy was separately appointed by Judge Selna as one of three settlement allocation counsel charged with overseeing the allocation of settlement funds to millions of Toyota owners throughout the United States. “I am honored to have been a member of the leadership team whose work brought about this historic settlement,” commented Ms. Conroy, “and I am doubly honored that Judge Selna has appointed me settlement allocation counsel.”
