Bench Trial and VW

diesel vehicles: VW does not believe any expedited hearing or bench trial is appropriate or required , according to the joint proposed agenda for the hearing on Thursday at the San Francisco district court about its progress towards reaching a deal with the Environmental Protection Agency . The plaintiffs – a committee representing thousands of consumers who say they were tricked into buying polluting diesel vehicles – proposed an expedited hearing or bench trial, or an expedited all issues trial including punitive damages, according to Euro News. The case will go to trial if an out-of-court settlement is not reached between Volkswagen and the EPA. The possibility of VW concluding months of talks with the EPA drove the carmaker shares to the top of the benchmark DAX index <.GDAXI> on Wednesday. A U.S. federal judge last month gave Volkswagen and regulators until April 21 to agree on a fix for nearly 600,000 diesel cars on U.S. roads implicated by VW emissions test-rigging scandal. VW shares were up 6.1 percent at 120.30 as of 1102 GMT. VW did not immediately return calls seeking comment. It would be a major positive trigger for the stock if VW quantified the total potential cost of the diesel affair, said Arndt Ellinghorst of market research firm Evercore ISI, who recommends buying the shares. euronews provides breaking news articles from Reuters as a service to its readers, but does not edit the articles it publishes. An agreement with U.S. authorities, also on financial penalties, would enable VW to finally provision for potential liabilities in its 2015 results, which are due to be approved by the automaker supervisory board on Friday. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.