NEWS
Monday, October 13, 2015 15
Volkswagen
» continued from COVER
Governments across the globe are beginning investigations, customers have begun to file class-action
lawsuits, and the US Department of Justice is considering pressing criminal charges. On 8 October, VW’s
US representatives were summoned to appear before
Congress. VW is setting aside approximately 7.3 billion USD to cover the costs of the scandal, but the EPA
has stated that VW’s violations of the Clean Air Act
could lead to over three times that amount—18 billion
USD—in fines.
With its stock plummeting and its directors in
crisis, VW is recalling the eleven million vehicles for a
refit; however, experts say that refitting the cars will
likely decrease their efficiency and performance. The
CBC reports probes are now being sent to other major
auto manufacturers, including BMW, Chrysler, GM,
Land Rover and Mercedes-Benz.
Volkswagen’s attempt to evade regulations
through legal loopholes is more than a mere point of
interest for the legal community. The scandal raises
serious issues: business ethics, the importance of regulation, the fragility of public trust, whether a lawyer’s job is to help their client find the legal loopholes
in a case, or whether the legal community demands
a higher standard of ethical behaviour than strict
adherence to the role of zealous advocate.
VW is currently denying any knowledge of who
is responsible for the software, but Don Pittis correctly observes that this is not the result of one “rogue
engineer.” This was a strategy designed to duplicitously evade standards regulations that were implemented across entire production lines, affecting cars
produced as far back as 2009. Winterkorn may be
telling the truth when he denies that he was responsible for this idea or its execution, but it is clear that
many, many individuals in the company are implicated in the scandal. The question for many is, were
VW’s lawyers as in the dark as VW’s directors claim
to be? If they weren’t, what kind of sanctions might
they be facing, if any, for providing the legal backdrop
against which unethical behaviour took place?
No investigation of VW has taken place yet, let
alone of its lawyers, but as law students, the story
is reminiscent to many as an Ethical Lawyering
hypothetical.
The question of, “What does this mean for lawyers?” can be answered with another question:
“Whose lawyers?” With class action suits already
begun in Canada and the US, and more sure to follow
in Europe, consumer-side litigators’ futures look
rosy; however, the situation might look different for
VW’s legal team, and the question of what this means
for the legal profession remains unanswered.
Whose responsibility is it to understand that there
are interests other than the bottom line? Does this
fall to a business, or its legal team, or does the ethical
dimension simply fall to the side, irrelevant?
Unfortunately for VW, its consumers are less than
pleased. A court has yet to find VW’s behaviour illegal, but people are having no problem deciding it’s
unethical. This is not the first time this type of technology has been used to evade emissions regulations.
Both Caterpillar and Volvo have been dinged for it
in the past, but bounced back relatively unscathed.
However, for a company that prides itself on its environmental standards, and who makes claims to consumers about its adherence to those standards, the
taint of hypocrisy is injurious. VW has suffered an
enormous blow to its reputation and much of its consumer goodwill has vanished, as many purchasers
specifically chose VW cars for envir