Global Litigation

Catalog description

German owned VW admits that it included a "defeat device" in the software for its diesel cars so they could fraudulently pass US environmental tests, and is sued by thousands of US consumers in state and federal courts in the US. Very quickly, the cases are consolidated in the federal court in Northern California. Meanwhile, special purpose foundations are established in the Netherlands to seek a settlement with VW on behalf of European consumers under the Dutch collective settlement act, and a securities lawsuit on behalf of investors whose share values have dropped dramatically is filed in Germany, using that country's special group litigation procedure. The Dutch foundations may be coordinating their actions with US lawyers, the shareholders in Germany are represented by the local partners of a leading US-based litigation boutique, and the shareholder suit is funded by a UK-based international litigation financing firm. In 2019, a jury in E.D. Va. delivers a verdict holding a former Somali army commander now living in the U.S. liable under the Torture Victim Protection Act for compensatory and punitive damages to a Somali citizen he injured 30 years ago. The plaintiff is represented by the Center for Justice & Accountability in San Francisco and DLA Piper lawyers serving pro bono; the witnesses include public and private actors from different countries. In 2011, US-based Apple sues Korea-based Samsung for patent infringement in N.D. CA and Samsung counter-sues in Korea, Japan and Germany. A year later more than 50 lawsuits are ongoing in more than 10 countries. Two years later the companies agree to drop their litigation outside the US and focus their resources on their US litigation battle. Apple wins a big judgment in the federal court in San Jose but Samsung appeals all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court. SCOTUS rejects the appeal and remands and in Spring…