A Texas lawyer and Ford Motor Company, whose ferocious legal battle in South Texas drew national attention in recent months, spent December sorting out millions of dollars of settlements.
"There has been settlement of nine cases, and I know Ford and plaintiff's attorneys are going to be sitting down and talking about some other cases," said Ford attorney David Prichard.
Until recently, Ford and the plaintiff's attorneys tended to duke out every case in court.
Among the SUV rollover accident cases recently settled were three that had resulted in jury verdicts totaling $100 million against Ford.
The Texas attorney, who has created a profitable industry suing Ford for rollover accidents involving its SUVs, had about 40 cases pending against the auto company, with more set to go to trial this year.
He said Ford's policy of refusing to settle the rollover accident cases resulted in many going to trial. But, that changed, he said, when the auto company sent out feelers in late 2005.
"They called one of my lawyers in Houston and said they wanted to have a meeting. They wanted to talk about every case we had," he said.
"It started off with a good bit of confrontation and mistrust, but both sides committed to work through that," he said. "The hope was that we could do a business deal, and hopefully we got that."
Because the rollover accident settlements were confidential, neither side would say how many millions of dollars changed hands.
"We have a large number of cases against Ford on file, and about 10 of them are set for trial between now and June," he said. "If Ford wants to resolve them on terms that are acceptable to our clients, we're certainly ready."
Reference:
"Ford Settles Many Rollover Cases," The Billings Gazette, December 2005.
