subject: Was There Really A Flaw? [print this page] Using the laptop computer industry in his plans to make money was a plan that a Texas personal injury lawyer came up with. Create a lawsuit against a company for a nonexistent problem. If you are one of those working in the market for laptop computers, this is not something to laugh about. Price increases are a possibility now that similar lawsuits have been filed against other companies as well.
When a lawyer filed a $9 billion lawsuit against a Japanese appliance maker, he was able to get from the company a settlement of $2 billion. A manufacturer of laptop computers as well, this company made the decision to settle the suit outside of court than risk losing more in court.
The contingency fees he and a group of lawyers would receive would amount to around $147 million. The computer manufacturer also gave to its millions of buyers cash rebates worth hundreds of dollars, as well as discount coupons. The plaintiffs responsible for the lawsuit filed last March were owners of laptop computers.
According to the men who had received $25,000 from the settlement, the laptops had a design flaw which made corruption of data loss a possible scenario. This flaw did not affect these men in any way, however.
The manufacturer of the chip claims that no complaint had ever been filed before about this feature in the laptop pointed out as a defect. There were no complaints made by any of the computer maker's customers until the two lawyers filed the lawsuit. The company also noted that it never was able to duplicate the loss of data attributed to the flaw during extensive laboratory tests.
The Japanese company would have suffered a terrible blow to its finances if they lost the jury trial. It's quite similar to tossing bloody meat into the Gulf of Mexico, said the legal observers who talked about the capitulation of the company. The sound of the splash did not even disappear yet, but the sharks were already there. Personal injury lawyers targeted another five laptop computer manufacturers who used the NEC floppy control chip.
These lawsuits are causing these businesses to consider layoffs. Things may worsen. The billion dollar settlements may be the reason for soaring personal computer prices, said a New York financial analyst. For two decades, the United States has been enjoying prosperity because of a low inflation rate that has been partly caused by falling computer prices.
If you spare just a few hundred dollars, you can purchase low priced computers that work better than those that existed twenty years ago that cost thousands of dollars. If more laptop manufacturers are threatened by lawsuits in the same manner as the Japanese company, computer prices are sure to go way higher. That would be great news for those who can afford it, but bad news for those who often have to work two jobs to send their kids to college.
