SUV Lawsuits

Hundreds of SUV owners or their families have filed lawsuits against the companies who manufacture these vehicles. The scope of these SUV lawsuits has ranged anywhere from problems over an SUV recall—involving defective or faulty parts—to injuries or deaths which occurred during an SUV rollover accident.

In June 2004, a San Diego woman was awarded a total of $369 million in a lawsuit filed against the Ford Motor Co. According to the lawsuit, Benetta Buell-Wilson was left paralyzed after she swerved in her Ford Explorer to avoid a piece of debris, causing the vehicle to rollover four-and-a-half times.

Buell-Wilson’s SUV rollover lawsuit alleged that design flaws in the safety and stability of the Explorer made it more likely to rollover in the event of an accident and ineffective at protecting passengers from serious injury or death. She and her SUV rollover attorneys urged Ford to recall the Explorer because of these problems, even offering to deduct $100 million from the verdict if it would do so.

Other SUV rollover lawsuits have netted verdicts of as much as $290 million for vehicles built by other manufactures, including Ford, Kia, GMC and Nissan.

Lawsuits have also been filed against Ford and Firestone concerned problems with the tires equipped on some Ford Explorers. Because of an increased risk of experiencing a Firestone tire blowout, Ford was forced to recall the Explorer to replace these potentially deadly tires. The two companies have paid a total of $16 million to settle some of the SUV tire blowout lawsuits filed over the Ford Explorer recall.

In addition to the numerous SUV rollover lawsuits that have been filed, the automobile industry has also faced lawsuits over a number of problems associated with SUVs. These have included problems with the construction of the vehicles, car fires started by the engine and defective seatbelts.