An attorney for Toyota Motor Corp. said Tuesday that the automaker is in negotiations with attorneys for nearly one-third of the 450 remaining wrongful-death and personal injury cases filed over sudden-acceleration defects.

John Hooper, a partner in Reed Smith’s New York office, gave the report during a hearing in Santa Ana, Calif., before U.S. District Judge James Selna, who has approved a process proposed last month by both sides to resolve the remaining acceleration cases.