Kia, Hyundai class action suit, Milwaukee attorneys led the way

MILWAUKEE - The first class action lawsuit brought against Kia and Hyundai due to the crime wave was done so by a Milwaukee law firm in 2021. A year later, more than 60 other class action lawsuits have been filed in multiple states, leading to the consolidation into one massive class action lawsuit that played out in California, where the two automakers are based in the U.S. 

Kia and Hyundai waved the white flag and agreed to settle the suit for $200 million. 

FOX6 News sat down with James Barton, the Milwaukee attorney who decided he had enough with the car thefts wreaking havoc on his city.

FOX6's Stephanie Grady: "Stealing cars, that is certainly not a new crime. Two years ago, the rate of cars being stolen in Milwaukee just absolutely skyrocketed. When did you guys first start thinking something bigger is going on here?"

"Was almost two years ago to the day," said Barton. "It started in May, June 2021.  Had some friends of the firm that had their cars stolen and one was a Kia and one was a Hyundai. When we started looking into this, all of a sudden, it was like, wow, how are thefts of Kias and Hyundais up 2,500%?"

FOX6's Stephanie Grady: "Were stolen car cases your law firm’s bread and butter before all of this?"

"No, no, no," said Barton. "We are not a stolen vehicle law firm. I’m not an auto mechanic by trade. No one in our firm is, but we went down to the junkyard, and we got some ignition assemblies of Kia and Hyundais to figure out what was the common theme about that, and we did a ton of research. Kia and Hyundai didn’t install immobilizer technology which has been ubiquitous in the automotive industry since the mid-1990s."

FOX6's Stephanie Grady: "Is it required?"

"It’s not required by NHTSA," said Barton. "In the EU, it’s been required since 2000 or 2001. In Canada, it’s been required since 2007. I believe in Australia, as well.

FOX6's Stephanie Grady: "Why do you think it’s not required here?"

"NHSTA said we can’t, and the reason we can’t is because our charge, when we create these federal motor vehicle standards, is they are minimum performance standards, OK?" said Barton. "We can’t impose design criteria."

"FOX6's Stephanie Grady: "Does any agency has a statutory authority to mandate this?"

"Not necessarily immobilizers," said Barton. 

FOX6's Stephanie Grady: "Are there any required mandates for airbags, per se?"

"There are, but they are minimum performance standards, but what ultimately happened is you know the VIN in your car, right? That also appears on your doors and on your engine block and on your transmission, and it was passed in the early 80s as another means to prevent auto theft," said Barton. NHTSA said look, all vehicles have to comply with this parts marking requirement, but if you take steps to install something like an immobilizer, that, in our opinion, will do a better job at preventing deaths. Then you don’t have to comply with the parts requirement part of it. Virtually every manufacturer followed suit and made immobilizer standard across various vehicle lines except Kia and Hyundai."

FOX6's Stephanie Grady: "You never got into whether this was a cost-cutting measure or anything like that?"

"The average cost to comply with the parts marking requirement was like, $6 a vehicle, give or take, whereas the cost to implement the immobilizer technology could range from $200-$500 a vehicle," said Barton. "We can do the math. You multiply that out by a couple of million vehicles. Well, there you go. It’s pretty immense cost savings."

FOX6's Stephanie Grady: "You said this was really just a case of common sense. Can you explain that?"

"There was a kid who steals one of these cars, gets in a high-speed chase with the cops, and he’s driving Good Hope Road going westbound," said Barton. "He’s going 90 miles an hour in oncoming traffic and just smokes another car head-on, and that’s when it really hit me. My nanny takes that road all the time, oftentimes with my children in the car."

FOX6's Stephanie Grady: "And that’s what push you over the edge?"

"Yeah, yeah," said Barton. "No one was doing anything about it, so we said, 'OK. Fine, Kia and Hyundai. You wanna pick a fight? Pick a fight with us. Let’s go."

FOX6's Stephanie Grady: "Have you ever taken a case like this before?"

"In terms of the profound effect this is having on our community and why we really did this, no," said Barton. "I have not taken on a case like this before. It’s been very, very rewarding, but, this isn’t about notching W-2s for our firm. We did it for the fact that this was an existential crisis and still is. We’re still getting calls about people who are getting their cars stolen left and right, and thank goodness help is on the way. Again, like you said, the wheels of justice turn slowly. Sometimes, they do, but we’re getting there, and that feels really, really good that if we did our part to make our community safer then that feels great."