Almost six years after the exhaust gas manipulation in diesel vehicles became known, the flood of lawsuits in German courts against manufacturers such as VW and Daimler continues.
This is reported by the newspapers of the Funke media group, citing a recent survey by the German Association of Judges at the 24 higher regional courts.
Accordingly, the appellate body recorded around 30,000 new cases nationwide in 2020.
In the previous year there were around 40,000 cases.
"Almost six years after the exhaust scandal broke out, there is still no end to the judicial processing in sight," said the federal manager of the judges' association, Sven Rebehn, the Funke newspapers.
"Despite the pandemic, the higher regional courts recorded around three times as many new diesel cases nationwide in 2020 as in 2018." According to the judges' association, most of the cases concern the Volkswagen Group as well as the manufacturers Daimler and BMW.
Stuttgart has the most lawsuits
According to the Association of Judges, the first four months of the current year are not yet showing a uniform picture: Several courts reported, in some cases significantly lower numbers, of diesel lawsuits, while others recorded constant or increasing numbers.
The highest numbers are currently reported by the Stuttgart Higher Regional Court, which received more than 4,800 appeal proceedings in diesel exhaust cases in 2020.
In the first four months of 2021, the Stuttgart-based company already recorded 2,320 new cases.
While the number of lawsuits against VW fell more or less sharply everywhere, also in view of the statute of limitations, "the number of lawsuits against Daimler is currently increasing," said Rebehn.
In Stuttgart, the number of cases almost tripled in the first four months of 2021 to 1,500 compared to the same period in 2020.