Since 1999, Toyota has received more than 2,000 complaints of unintended acceleration of some of its models. Six separate investigations conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration later only yielded the finding of “unsecured floor mats” — it took the death of an off-duty CHP officer and his family to shake the giant car maker into a more exhaustive inquiry into its cars.

After recalling 4.2 million vehicles and suspending the sale of affected models, Toyota has announced it has found a way to fix the unintended acceleration. The problem with the faulty gas pedals were traced by the engineers to have been caused by a friction device in the assembly that is supposed to provide the proper pedal “feel” by adding resistance.

The repair, which is supposed to take about half an hour, consists of installing a steel shim a couple of millimeters thick in the pedal assembly, which will eliminate the excess friction between two pieces of the accelerator mechanism.

Toyota will shoulder the expenses of the repair and have shipped the steel shim out to the dealerships and customers with Toyota models the subject of recall are advised to wait to receive certified letters from Toyota before heading out to their nearest dealer.

Also, for consumers involved in any unintended acceleration accident with said Toyota vehicles, they may contact Toyota’s customer service at 800-331-4331 or file a complaint online with the NHTSA at http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/ivoq.

Another option, for victims who have been grievously hurt or whose family member had perished in a car accident due to car defects, they can file a personal injury lawsuit or a wrongful death lawsuit.

Currently, there are already a number of lawsuits filed against the Japanese automaker because of their dangerously defective cars. Some suits even claim that the defect is due to the car’s electronic system.

The Toyota troubles has however, spawned a number of “Toyota lawyers” but affected drivers should be wary before engaging the services of just any lawyer. Aside from taking into consideration the benefits of a contingency fee, lawyers must be experienced in litigating product liability or car defects claims. The track record of experience must likewise be sterling because the lawyer must be good enough to have won the cases he handles.