After VW Accord, Berman Targets Chrysler's 'Clean Diesel' Vehicles

Steve Berman was wrapping up the $1.2 billion emissions settlement for Volkswagen's franchise dealers last month when he turned to a new automaker, Chrysler, filing a consumer class action alleging thousands of its Dodge Ram and Jeep Grand Cherokee clean diesel vehicles emitted dangerous levels of nitrogen oxides.

Berman, who played a lead role in the Volkswagen multidistrict litigation, didn't come by the allegations by accident: His Seattle firm, Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro, has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars testing the vehicles.

Then, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Jan. 12 announced a notice of violation of the Clean Air Act against Chrysler, now FCA US LLC. Since then, at least five other class actions have been filed against FCA. Berman says many "copycatted the firm's case" without having done any testing of their own.

"I don't think it's appropriate to just be free riding off someone else's work, and it wasn't until the EPA confirmed our Dodge findings that these law firms even had the guts to file a lawsuit," he said. read more »

EPA official says VW diesel scandal deterrent to auto industry

The massive fines paid by Volkswagen AG and criminal indictment of seven executives are a "very strong deterrent" to cheating by other automakers, a senior career Environmental Protection Agency official said on Wednesday.

Christopher Grundler, director of EPA's Office of Transportation and Air Quality, told reporters after remarks to a meeting of automotive engineers in Washington that the penalties have had a big impact.

"It gets everybody's attention," he said. read more »

Ford recalls C-Max, Focus, F-150 to address two defects

The F-150 requires reprogramming of the instrument cluster display to show the proper gear selection in cold ambient temperatures.

Ford has announced two recall campaigns, one for the 2016 F-150 and another for the 2016 C-Max and Focus. read more »