The federal court overseeing this case authorized the Notice to inform you about a proposed class action settlement in a lawsuit known as In Re: ZF-TRW Airbag Control Units Products Liability Litigation, Case No. 2:19-ml-02905-JAK-JPR. The case is pending before the Honorable John A. Kronstadt in the United States District Court for the Central District of California.

Plaintiffs Tiffany Ecklor, Gaylynn Sanchez, Michael Nearing, and John Sancomb (together, the “Settlement Class Representatives”) allege that Mitsubishi designed and sold vehicles with a defective ZF-TRW ACU. The ACU is an electrical component that controls the functions of various safety features, including airbags. Plaintiffs allege the ZF-TRW ACUs in the Mitsubishi Class Vehicles (defined in FAQ 2) are vulnerable to an electrical overstress condition that can cause the vehicles’ airbags and other passenger safety systems to malfunction during a collision, which may result in airbag non-deployment or other safety failures.

Mitsubishi denies all claims and allegations of wrongdoing in the lawsuit. The Court has not decided who is right. Instead, the Parties have agreed to the Settlement to avoid the costs, risk, and delays associated with continuing this complex and time-consuming litigation.

The Class consists of all persons or entities who or which, on November 1, 2024, own or lease or previously owned or leased Mitsubishi Class Vehicles that were originally sold or leased in the United States or any of its territories or possessions.

To check whether you have a Mitsubishi Class Vehicle, please enter your Vehicle Identification Number (“VIN”) on the VIN lookup page. 

If you do not know your VIN, please check the driver’s side dashboard and/or driver’s side door post, which will contain the 17-digit VIN for your vehicle. You should take a photo of the VIN with your phone, so you have easy access to the number when you’re filing a claim.

Eligibility for cash payments will be determined by VIN. The Mitsubishi Class Vehicles are the: 

• 2013-2017 Mitsubishi Lancer;
• 2013-2015 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution;
• 2013-2015 Mitsubishi Lancer Ralliart;
• 2013-2016 Mitsubishi Lancer Sportback; and 
• 2013 Mitsubishi Outlander.

If you are not sure whether you are a Class Member, or have any other questions about the Settlement, email info@ACUSettlement.com or call toll-free at 1-855-680-6395.

The following entities and individuals are excluded from the Settlement Class:

• Mitsubishi, its officers, directors, employees and outside counsel; its affiliates and affiliates’ officers, directors and employees; its distributors and distributors’ officers and directors; and Mitsubishi’s Dealers and their officers and directors;
• Settlement Class Counsel, Plaintiffs’ counsel, and their employees;
• Judicial officers and their immediate family members and associated court staff assigned to this case; and
• Persons or entities who or which timely and properly excluded themselves from the Class.

If approved, the Settlement will provide cash compensation and other benefits to Class Members. These benefits are:

1. A $8,500,000 Settlement Fund to pay Class Members who submit a valid claim. The cash payment will be up to $250 per Mitsubishi Class Vehicle, with the potential for additional payments of unclaimed funds, depending on the volume of claims submitted and court-awarded fees and costs; and
2. A robust Mitsubishi Class Vehicle inspection program.

FAQ 5, FAQ 6, FAQ 7, FAQ 8, and FAQ 9 describe these benefits in more detail.

After deducting attorneys’ fees, costs, and Settlement Class Representative service awards (see FAQ 17) and Settlement administration costs (estimated at approximately $447,000 to $712,000), the remaining Settlement Amount will be allocated evenly, on a per-capita basis, among all Mitsubishi Class Vehicles for which the Settlement Notice and Claims Administrator has received a valid Claim Form. The compensation available will be up to $250 per Mitsubishi Class Vehicle, with the potential for additional payments of unclaimed funds, depending on the volume of claims submitted.

If more than one Class Member submits a valid claim for the same Mitsubishi Class Vehicle, then the original owner who purchased that Mitsubishi Class Vehicle new shall receive 60% of the funds allocated to that Mitsubishi Class Vehicle, and the remaining 40% will be distributed evenly to or among the remaining Class Member(s) that submit a valid claim on that Mitsubishi Class Vehicle.

For example, if each Mitsubishi Class Vehicle is allocated $250 and an original owner and a subsequent owner both submit valid claims for the same vehicle, the original owner would be allocated $150, and the subsequent owner would be allocated $100.

Class Members may submit one Claim Form for each Mitsubishi Class Vehicle they own(ed) or lease(d).

You must timely submit a valid claim to receive a cash payment. The Claim Form asks for basic information and takes just a few minutes to complete.

To submit your claim online, visit the File A Claim page. If you received a Postcard or Email Notice and provide your Unique ID from that notice, you will not need to provide any documentation when you submit your claim. If you do not have a Unique ID, or if the Settlement Notice and Claims Administrator is unable to verify the information in your claim, the Settlement Notice and Claims Administrator may request supporting documentation to show your ownership or lease of the vehicle, such as vehicle title, registration, purchase agreement, lease agreement, insurance documentation, or other documentation showing both your name and the VIN. 

If you would prefer to submit your Claim Form by mail, you can download and print the necessary forms from the Important Documents page or request a hardcopy form to be mailed to you by calling 1-855-680-6395 or sending an email to info@ACUSettlement.com. For faster claims processing, you should submit your claim online, rather than by mail.

If you have questions about what documentation is needed for your claim, email info@ACUSettlement.com or call the Settlement Notice and Claims Administrator at 1-855-680-6395.

Submit claims online: Visit the File A Claim page

Submit claims via email: info@ACUSettlement.com

Submit claims via mail: 

Mitsubishi Airbag Control Unit Settlement
c/o JND Legal Administration
PO Box 91000
Seattle, WA 98111

The Settlement Notice and Claims Administrator will calculate the payment amount for each timely, valid, and complete Claim Form, and send out payments after the Claim Period closes.

The Claims Period shall run as follows: Class Members shall have 12 months from the Effective Date to submit a Claim Form for cash compensation.

The “Effective Date” will depend on when the Court enters its order finally approving the Settlement and its Judgment, and whether there is an appeal of the Judgment.

Please check this website after the Fairness Hearing (see FAQ 20) for information concerning the timing of cash payments. The Parties anticipate that the Court will hold its Fairness Hearing on April 7, 2025 at 8:30 a.m.

Once the Court grants final approval of the Settlement, Mitsubishi shall institute a Settlement Inspection Program to inspect Mitsubishi Class Vehicles when notified of a Qualifying Incident involving a Mitsubishi Class Vehicle. For more information, please review the Inspection Program Protocol that is attached as Exhibit 3 to the Settlement Agreement. The Settlement Agreement and its exhibits can be found on the Important Documents page.

The Settlement is non-reversionary. This means that no amount of the $8.5 million will be returned to Mitsubishi. If there are any unclaimed funds remaining from the Settlement Amount the Parties will redistribute up to $750 to all Class Members who submitted a valid claim, if economically feasible to do so.

If it is not feasible and/or economically reasonable to attempt a second distribution, then the remaining balance shall be distributed “cy pres”, which means they are paid to charitable causes that indirectly benefit the Class. The cy pres recipient(s) in this case, if any, is subject to the agreement of the Parties and Court approval. Please check this website for updates about any cy pres distribution.

In a class action, one or more people called “class representatives” sue on behalf of other people who have similar claims. All these people are known as a “Class” or “Class Members.” When a class action is settled, the Court resolves the issues in the lawsuit for all Class Members, except for those who request to be excluded from (or “opt out” of) the Class. Opting out means that you will not receive benefits under the Settlement. The opt out process is described in FAQ 13, FAQ 14, and FAQ 15. 

If the Settlement becomes final and you did not exclude yourself, you will release Mitsubishi and the Released Parties from liability and will not be able to sue them about the issues in the lawsuit. 

Under the Settlement, you are not releasing and are expressly reserving all rights relating to claims for personal injury, wrongful death, or actual physical property damage arising from an incident involving a Mitsubishi Class Vehicle, including the deployment or non-deployment of an airbag. 

Section VII of the Settlement Agreement describes the released claims in necessary legal terminology, so read it carefully. The Settlement Agreement is available on the Important Documents page. 

You can talk to one of the lawyers listed in FAQ 16 for free or you can, of course, talk to your own lawyer at your own expense if you have questions about the released claims or what they mean.

If you do nothing, you will not get a payment from the Settlement. See FAQ 6 for information on how to get a cash payment from the Settlement.

You will also be bound by all terms of the Settlement, which means you will not be able to start a lawsuit, continue with a lawsuit, or be part of any other lawsuit against Mitsubishi about the legal issues in this case.

The deadline to submit a request to exclude yourself from, or “opt out” of, the Settlement passed on February 27, 2025.

No. If you did not timely submit your request for exclusion or failed to include the required information in your request for exclusion, you will remain a Class Member and will not be able to sue Mitsubishi about the claims that the Settlement resolves. If you did not exclude yourself from the Settlement, you will be bound like all other Class Members by the Court’s orders and judgments in this class action lawsuit, even if you do not file a claim.

The deadline to submit a request to exclude yourself from, or “opt out” of, the Settlement passed on February 27, 2025.

No. You will not get money from the Settlement if you excluded yourself. If you excluded yourself from the Settlement, do not send in a Claim Form asking for benefits from the Settlement.

The deadline to submit a request to exclude yourself from, or “opt out” of, the Settlement passed on February 27, 2025.

Yes. The Court has appointed lawyers from the law firms Baron & Budd, P.C. and Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP to represent you and other Class Members. These lawyers are called “Co-Lead Counsel.” Their contact information is as follows:

If you want to be represented by your own lawyer, you may hire one at your own expense.

Co-Lead Counsel will ask the Court to award the attorneys representing the Class up to 30% percent of the Settlement Amount (i.e. up to $2.55 million) to compensate them for their attorneys’ fees and costs in litigating this case and securing this nationwide Settlement for the Class. Co-Lead Counsel will also ask the Court to award each of the 4 proposed Settlement Class Representatives a service award of up to $2,500 each for their work in this litigation.

The Court must approve Co-Lead Counsel’s requests for fees, costs, and Settlement Class Representative service awards, before they are paid from the Settlement Fund. Co-Lead Counsel will submit their request by January 27, 2025, and that document will be available on the Important Documents page shortly after it is filed with the Court. Class Members had an opportunity to comment on and/or object to the requests for attorneys’ fees, costs and Settlement Class Representative service awards, as explained further in FAQ 18 and FAQ 19 below. Please check this website regularly for updates regarding Class Counsel’s request for attorneys’ fees, costs, and Settlement Class Representative service awards.

The deadline to object to the Settlement passed on February 27, 2025.

Excluding yourself is telling the Court that you do not want to be part of the Class and do not want to receive any benefits under the Settlement or release any of the claims resolved by the Settlement. If you exclude yourself, you have no basis to object because the Settlement no longer affects you.

Objecting is telling the Court that you do not like something about the Settlement, the requested fees, costs, and/or Settlement Class Representative service awards. You may object only if you stay in the Class. You do not need to submit a claim to object, but if you object, you must still submit a claim to receive compensation under the Settlement.

The deadline to exclude yourself from or object to the Settlement passed on February 27, 2025. 

The Court will hold a Fairness Hearing on April 7, 2025 at 8:30 a.m., at the United States District Courthouse, Central District of California, First Street Courthouse, 350 W. First Street, Courtroom 10B, Los Angeles, CA 90012. At this hearing, the Court will consider whether the Settlement is fair, reasonable, and adequate, and whether to approve the request for attorneys’ fees, costs, and the request for Settlement Class Representative service awards. If there are objections, the Court will consider them and may listen to people who have asked to speak at the hearing (see FAQ 22). The Court will decide whether to grant final approval of the settlement, and, if so, how much to pay the lawyers representing you and the Class. We do not know how long these decisions will take. The Court may reschedule the Fairness Hearing, so check this website for further updates.

No, you do not need to attend the Fairness Hearing. Co-Lead Counsel will answer any questions the Court may have. If you wish to attend the hearing, you are welcome to come at your own expense. If you submit an objection to the Settlement, you do not have to come to Court to talk about it, but you have the option to do so if you provide advance notice of your intention to appear (see FAQ 22). As long as you submitted a written objection with all of the required information on time with the Court, the Court will consider it. You may have your own lawyer attend at your expense, but it is not required.

You or your attorney may ask the Court for permission to speak at the Fairness Hearing. To do so, you must file with the Court a written notice of your intent to appear by March 17, 2025, and send a copy of that notice to Co-Lead Counsel and to Mitsubishi’s Counsel at the addresses listed in FAQ 18.

Anyone who has requested permission to speak must be present at the start of the Fairness hearing on April 7, 2025 at 8:30 a.m. The Court may reschedule the Fairness Hearing, so check this website for further updates.

The notice summarizes the proposed Settlement. More details are in the Settlement Agreement. 

You can get a copy of the Settlement Agreement and other documents and information about the Settlement on the Important Documents page. You can also call the toll-free number, 1-855-680-6395 or write the Settlement Notice and Claims Administrator at: 

Mitsubishi Airbag Control Unit Settlement
c/o JND Legal Administration
PO Box 91000
Seattle, WA 98111
info@ACUSettlement.com