Lawmakers fired questions Wednesday at two Toyota executives about whether the company’s lobbyists are too cozy with government regulators and whether those relationships slowed the response to complaints about the automaker’s safety record. The hearing, the second on Capitol Hill this week, also served as a forum for lawmakers to debate proposals related to the U.S. tort system

Toyota executives head to Capitol Hill today for the first of three hearings on the automaker’s product safety record — a trip to the political woodshed that could get the company into a deeper legal thicket in courts around the country. Plaintiffs lawyers on Monday said they will be watching testimony closely

The attorney for a man imprisoned after a fatal car crash says he’ll seek to have the man’s Toyota re-examined in light of the automaker’s recent recall over accelerator issues. Koua Fong Lee is serving eight years in prison for a high-speed crash in Minneapolis that killed three people in 2006

Legal attacks against Toyota Motor Sales USA are escalating, following fresh reports of product safety defects afflicting some of the most popular vehicles in the automaker’s fleet. Some 15 law firms working on a case seeking $1 billion in damages on behalf of a nationwide class of consumers say they plan to file another three dozen suits in at least 25 states. As of Wednesday, there was no word on whether litigation lies in store over Toyota’s latest headache: reported brake problems in its Prius hybrid vehicle.

A former in-house lawyer for Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc.