One benefit to being the second-largest automaker in the world is that you have a lot of money, and having a lot of money comes in handy when you have to pay your problems away. And where there are problems and money, there are lawyers.
Volkswagen Group has agreed to pay $175 million to U.S. lawyers representing 475,000 owners affected by the Dieselgate scandal, where the automaker was caught cheating on carbon emissions tests on millions of cars.
That’s a lot of money, but it’s just a fraction of the $332.5 million lawyers were seeking back in August to cover fees and costs concerning the settlement between Volkswagen and owners trying to sell back their emissions-cheating diesels, according to Automotive News.
The rest of the settlement has VW paying out up to $16.7 billion to make it all go away, with just over $10 billion being allocated to buy back affected vehicles and compensate owners. That doesn’t include some withstanding fixes or compensation waiting for regulator approval, namely the 85,000 3.0-liter emissions-cheating diesel vehicles that have yet to be decided on.
The decision to grant final approval for the owners’ settlement will be held in San Francisco next week.