For the first time, multidistrict litigation (MDL) cases over General Motors’ faulty ignition switches have fallen below 1,000. It’s the first time the case number has shrunk to such a low level, Reuters reported Wednesday.
“Over 80 percent of the MDL has been resolved and, as we will discuss later, we have our marching orders to make a resolution push,” GM lawyer Richard Godfrey of Kirkland & Ellis told U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman in Manhattan.
MDL occurs when “civil actions involving one or more common questions of fact are pending in different districts.” The process sees cases sent from one court transferred to a secondary court for pre-trial and the discovery phases. If the case is not settled in the transferred court, the case returns to the initial court for a trial.
The GM ignition switch trials have remained ongoing for years. Cases involve victims who did not accept compensation from the GM compensation fund, overseen by Ken Feinberg. The compensation fund approved 124 cases pegging the ignition switch as the cause of death for a particular individual.
Comment
So when the GUC trust proposed settlement is approved by Judge Glenn all of the ones who were compensated already by Feinberg fund will be blocked by the release signed since accidents prior to 2009 were shielded by a bankruptcy and told we had no other option. Is that a correct statement?