Easy Rider Head Out on the Highway

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1 Easy Rider Head Out on the Highway Jerry K. Hashimura Robert Hernandez Suzuki Motor of America, Inc E. Imperial Highway Brea, CA (714)

2 Jerry K. Hashimura is the department manager for Suzuki Motor of America s Legal Division. He served 24 years of active duty with the Army Judge Advocate General s Corp, and after being recruited by Suzuki, he retired from active service and joined Suzuki in January of Within a few years of joining Suzuki, Mr. Hashimura assumed responsibility for all of Suzuki s automotive personal injury, product liability litigation in the United States and Canada, and about halfway through his tenure, he and Suzuki s PL defense team have been managing PL litigation concerning all of Suzuki s products. In addition to departmental responsibilities such as personnel management and budget planning and execution, Mr. Hashimura has also been responsible for managing the defense of patent infringement lawsuits and breach of warranty litigation. Robert Hernandez is managing counsel for Suzuki Motor of America s Legal Division. After high school, he played professional and semi-professional soccer while working for Mitsubishi dealerships and learning some technical aspects of automobiles. After law school at UCLA, Mr. Hernandez was an associate at Bowman and Brooke, and he defended nearly every major automobile manufacturer in lawsuits in state and federal courts. He then went to Morris, Polich, and Purdy, where in addition to working on mass torts as part of the firm s Life Sciences and Product Liability teams, he conceived of and developed the firm s Automotive Practice group and served as the group chair. After practicing for just under 10 years in law firms, Mr. Hernandez went in-house at Suzuki, and he now manages the defense of auto, motorcycle, all-terrain vehicle, and outboard engine lawsuits across the United States and Canada. He also has input into dealer litigation and corporate matters.

3 Easy Rider Head Out on the Highway Table of Contents I. Introduction...5 II. Overview...5 A. Suzuki The Company...5 B. Suzuki Sportbikes...6 C. Who Buys These Sportbikes and Then Sues Us?...6 D. The Crash When Things Go Wrong for the Rider and the Challenges in Defending These Cases...7 Easy Rider Head Out on the Highway Hashimura and Hernandez 3

5 Easy Rider Head Out on the Highway I. Introduction We have been asked to discuss the unique strategies and challenges in defending Suzuki s motorcycle-related personal injury litigation and how that might differ from automotive-related cases most of you may be familiar with from either defending such cases or through newspaper articles or broadcast media, and how these cases may differ from manufacturers facing litigation from products as far removed from a motorcycle as you could possibly get, such as a children s toy, a Sharpie or crayon, a table saw, or an implanted medical device. There is insufficient time to dive deep into our strategies for defending these cases within the time we have for today s presentation and, while there isn t enough time to fully discuss the challenges we face in these cases, we will focus on these challenges to the extent our time allows. II. Overview We ve divided this discussion into four primary areas. The first part will briefly talk about the challenges defending products designed and manufactured by a foreign (Japanese) parent company. The second part will introduce you to the product we see most in our motorcycle litigation at this time sportbikes, or race-replicas, or crotchrockets, as many people refer to them. Third, we ll talk about the people buying these sportbikes and introduce you to some of the plaintiffs who have crashed them and sued us both from the perspective of our meeting them in person, seeing their medical records or autopsies, and through their own social media postings. And fourth, we ll get into the crashes we see and how they can complicate our understanding the crash dynamics, rider motion during the crash sequence, and reconstructing the crash to credibly explain to the jury what actually occurred. A. Suzuki The Company Designs and manufactures automobiles, motorcycles, scooters, all-terrain vehicles, outboard motors, and a variety of other products. Suzuki is not Toyota, Honda, GM, Chrysler, or Ford, but is a Japanese company with a global footprint. Corporate commitment to making a profit every year. Japanese culture different and must be respected. Juries must sometimes be educated on these differences. Principal design responsibilities reside in Japan. Engineering staff speaks Japanese and when their work day starts, ours is ending. Deposition preparation and actual deposition complicated by language, distance, and US- Japan treaty. Documents, such as design, development, and testing, are in Japanese. Like law firms and any other company, our backgrounds/personalities blend with our Japanese parent, its values and culture, and form our approach to litigation. Easy Rider Head Out on the Highway Hashimura and Hernandez 5

B. Suzuki Sportbikes Suzuki Hayabusa Suzuki GSX-R1000 Sportbike category: what is a sportbike? These motorcycles are high-performance machines.

6 B. Suzuki Sportbikes Suzuki Hayabusa Suzuki GSX-R1000 Sportbike category: what is a sportbike? These motorcycles are high-performance machines. Each and every part of these motorcycles (and all of the other motorcycles we sell) is purpose-designed and built to act as an integrated system. The throttle, brakes, transmission, and suspension systems have been carefully thought out and are designed to get the maximum performance out of the rider. And, why do we say the maximum performance from the rider? Because these motorcycles will do just about anything the rider reasonably asks it to do. Would you expect more litigation from the fastest motorcycle, the Hayabusa model with a top speed in excess of 190 mph? Have we seen litigation differences between the Hayabusa and our popular GSX-R motorcycles, which has a top speed of over 175 mph? C. Who Buys These Sportbikes and Then Sues Us? So, who s buying these motorcycles? As you can imagine, it s not the stay-at-home Mom picking up her child from school and getting him or her to soccer practice. Our purchasers include sportbike enthusiasts, who are quite experienced in operating these types of motorcycles and safely operate them day in and day out. It includes stunt riders or thrill seekers who crave the adrenaline rush of going 180 mph on the 15 Freeway to Las Vegas; it s the stereotypical motorcycle rider trying to send a message about his or her lifestyle; and, unfortunately, it s the first-time sportbike rider who always wanted one but doesn t have a clue as to what they are climbing on or what s going to happen when they turn that throttle wide open. What does the typical plaintiff look like no surprise, they run the gamut 6 Product Liability February 2017

From the club rider who hands out free school backpacks to underprivileged children in their community, to stunt riders, college students, architects, and the young lady who is a piano teacher.

7 From the club rider who hands out free school backpacks to underprivileged children in their community, to stunt riders, college students, architects, and the young lady who is a piano teacher. One of our challenges in these types of cases is that motorcycle riders are relatively exposed and many crashes of these motorcycles are at high speed. Or, they re at a speed that many would not consider high speed, such as 25 to 30 miles an hour (which might not be much of a crash in some circumstances for automobiles) but because of the physical exposure of a motorcycle rider, the result is often catastrophic injury or death. It is not unusual for riders to be killed, burned (think about the location of the fuel tank being between the rider s two thighs), or to lose limbs. While many jurors have an inherent bias against motorcycle riders, given their relatively limited exposure to motorcycle riders, this can be outweighed by these catastrophic injuries, which many of your know are always difficult to defend and engender sympathy from jurors. D. The Crash When Things Go Wrong for the Rider and the Challenges in Defending These Cases Why do motorcycle accidents happen? High-speed motorcycles often involve high-speed crashes no surprise. High-speed crashes make accident reconstruction difficult, at best. Likewise, these large crash forces often make it difficult to understand the biomechanics of the crash, as seriously injured plaintiffs are often taken from the scene before their point of rest can be documented by law enforcement. The above set of circumstances also creates challenges for accident reconstructionists to work with biomechanics to fully develop crash scenarios. The human factors expert becomes integral to developing the crash scenario by filling in preimpact blanks customarily filled by the reconstructionist. For example, most motorcycle accidents occur when a vehicle makes a left turn in front of a motorcycle rider. In that scenario, the human factors expert testifies regarding attention, perception/reaction times of the motorcycle Easy Rider Head Out on the Highway Hashimura and Hernandez 7

8 rider and car driver, and the pre-impact situation dynamics more so than in a typical car accident. Because our plaintiffs are often catastrophically injured, most cases are big damages cases. Coupled with our desire to win, the company pride in its products, and our defense oriented philosophy, resolving pre-trial, therefore is particularly challenging in our motorcycle cases. 8 Product Liability February 2017

Crash Course. THE front. Avoiding Accidents. You can keep a truck wreck from becoming a legal catastrophe. By H. Peyton Inge IV.

Crash Course. THE front. Avoiding Accidents. You can keep a truck wreck from becoming a legal catastrophe. By H. Peyton Inge IV. Crash Course You can keep a truck wreck from becoming a legal catastrophe. THE front By H. Peyton Inge IV // Not only is an accident involving a large truck costly in the immediate aftermath, but it can