WATCH: Legal Expert Says Toyota Hurt Badly, Will One Day Rebound

The Toyota car recall is the biggest public relations and legal nightmare since the 1982 killer Tylenol capsules that were anomymously laced with cyanide.

At least that is what prominent consumer and products liability expert Edwin Baum of New York law firm Proskauer Rose writes in today's New York Law Journal, a technical law journal that is not known for hyperbole. Regarding Toyota [NYSE: TM], Baum says:

What's so big about this is the volume of vehicles affected. We're talking about 1 million to 5 million vehicles.

… It invariably will have a serious negative impact on the brand and the reputation, at least in the short term. And they are, with equal certainty, going to be mired in litigation over this for quite some time… One will be the consumer or punitive class action litigation—litigation brought by or on behalf of those people who own these vehicles who haven't experienced accidents, but who are seeking remedies under two types of laws. Either the lemon laws, which give vehicle owners the right to have manufacturers buy back the vehicles under certain circumstances, or deceptive advertising [laws], which typically give rise to monetary damages.

The other category is the personal injury cases. That's going to tend to have a longer tail. The consumer cases will come and go. The personal injury cases will be around for many years to come.

…This will hurt them, but I don't think it will destroy them. [New York Law Journal, $$$, Feb 4]

The CNN video above says that it isn't just Toyota who acted slowly. The government may have known about this fatal flaw since 2005.

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Related:

• How to Bounce Back from a PR Disaster, NPR, (Audio cast available after 6 p.m. EST, Feb 4)
• Toyota's Recalls: A Tough Road Back, BusinessWeek