In re Yamaha Rhino
N/AOUTCOME: Yamaha defeated hundreds of plaintiffs nationwide seeking awards high enough to sink the entire company. I was on Yamaha's defense team.
In 2008 hundreds of lawsuits were filed against Yamaha for injuries suffered while riding in the Yamaha Rhino ATV. Plaintiffs all over the nation attacked Yamaha under a products liability theory, all ... eging manufacturing and design defects. The financial magnitude of the lawsuits had the potential to bankrupt Yamaha. The nationwide firm Bowman & Brooke LLP was retained to defend Yamaha against the slew of lawsuits. Yamaha defended on a basis of contributory negligence in that the plaintiffs were improperly using and handling the ATVs in direct violation of the warning stickers and user's manual. During discovery, plaintiffs sought hundreds of thousands of sensitive documents from Yamaha, requiring a team of over 20 attorneys and paralegals to focus solely on discovery for over 2 years. I was on that team for the entire duration of the litigation. Cases began going to trial with some of the best products liability attorneys in the nation defending Yamaha. Eventually there were so many cases the federal court ordered them combined into Multi-District Litigation. The litigation was all over the media and cost millions of dollars to defend. Yamaha began winning trials and plaintiffs and their attorneys started seeking settlements rather than risk a jury trial. The litigation eventually phased out. http://www.bowmanandbrooke.com/site-search-results?q=yamaha+rhino
