Lawyer Monthly - January 2022 Edition

MONTHLY ROUND-UP New York law firm Debevoise & Plimpton told a Virginia federal court that scammers have been imitating it online to trick victims into sending over money and personal information. The High Court refused an attempt by automotive giant Volkswagen to have a key element of a class action lawsuit dismissed. DIESELGATE: VOLKSWAGEN LOSES BID TO HAVE “DECEIT” CLAUSE DISMISSED The Volkswagen emissions scandal, often referred to as the dieselgate scandal, began in September 2015 when it emerged that the car giant had installed devices into its vehicles to rig its pollution emissions data during tests. While the scandal initially ap - peared to be a German issue, it soon spread to other na- tions. Over 90,000 people in the UK are seeking compensation after buying Volkswagen vehi - cles – including Audis, Skodas, and Seats – that were more damaging to the environment than the buyers had under- stood. On Tuesday, the High Court Justice ruled against a Volk - swagen attempt to have a claim of “deceit” removed. So far, the car giant has spent approximately £25 billion globally on legal costs and compensation relating to the case. In the United States, Volkswagen agreed on pay - outs to drivers of between $5,100 and $40,000 depend - ing on the models purchased. In a statement, Volkswagen said, “We respect the Court’s view that the deceit claim is a complex matter which should be discussed in more detail at trial, in 2023. Volkswagen Group maintains there is no legal basis to the Claimants’ argument that customers were deceived by Volkswagen. We will robustly defend our view at trial.” LM DEBEVOISE & PLIMPTON SAY PHISHING SCAM IS USING FIRM’S TRADEMARK In a complaint on 13 December, Debevoise & Plimpton said that the owners of “debevoise-law.com” and “debovoise-laws.com” have been using the names of actual Debevoise & Plimpton attorneys in emails sent out to victims as part of a phishing scheme. Debevoise & Plimpton remains unaware of who is running the two websites because a privacy service is concealing the owner’s data on the websites’ registration records. Debovoise-law. com directs visitors through to Debevoise & Plimpton’s genuine website, while debevoise-laws.com displays ads for legal services. The complaint by Debevoise & Plimpton says web-hosting company Namecheap has not acted on its requests, made in October and November, to bring the websites down. The firm sued the websites for trademark cyberpiracy under federal law. In a statement, Debevoise & Plimpton said it “does not tolerate this type of criminal activity” and that it plans to move quickly to capture the domain names and bring an end to the phishing scheme. LM 7 JAN 2022 | WWW.LAWYER-MONTHLY.COM