Judge In Australia Not Happy About Tesla Dragging Its Feet In Class Action Case
May 17, 202610 minutes
Zachary Shahan
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It took a lot longer than I expected, but there are class action lawsuits underway against Tesla in the US and Australia, and they just keep dragging on. In fact, in Australia, Tesla has been dragging things along so much that a judge there is losing his patience.
This case is about more than just Full Self Driving and Tesla potentially misleading people about its capabilities. It also claims that Tesla misled customers about battery range and phantom braking.
“A judge hearing an Australian class action lawsuit against Tesla, opens new tab on Friday questioned whether the Elon Musk-led automaker was taking the discovery process seriously and warned it could expect ‘a really bad time’ if it failed to cooperate,” Reuters shares. “Federal Court judge Tom Thawley gave the warning after a lawyer representing 10,000 Australian Tesla drivers complained that the U.S.-listed car company had produced just 2,000 documents after an eight-month discovery process.” Yup, that does seem slow….
Matters the complainants and judge deem important for the case include documents concerning engineering software and the computer systems Tesla’s using, as well as complaints outside of Australia.
“From what we’re getting, we can’t brief our experts,” JGA Saddler lawyer Rebecca Jancauskas told the court. “The paucity of discovery is what’s thrown a massive spanner in the works.” The judge agrees that it has gotten a bit absurd. “I find it gobsmacking that only 2,000 documents have been produced and I wonder whether the exercise has been treated seriously,” he said.
But what is there to do? They can’t make Tesla speed up, can they?
Oh, well, maybe they can. Apparently, Judge Thawley has given Tesla just till July 31 to complete the discovery process — or else. Or else what? That’s not clear, but the judge won’t be happy — “if it’s inadequate, you can expect a really bad time, and I will get into what’s gone on and whether it’s been done appropriately.” That’s what we know for now.
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