Feinburg prepared to pay out billions to GM crash victims

WASHINGTON (AP) — Kenneth Feinberg is prepared to pay out billions of General Motors’ money to victims of crashes in GM small cars - provided they can prove the cars’ ignition switches caused the crash.

GM links 13 deaths to a defective ignition switch in cars such as the Chevrolet Cobalt and Saturn Ion. But trial lawyers and lawmakers say claims of wrongful death and injury could total in the hundreds.

Feinberg, the country’s eminent compensation expert, said GM has placed no limit on the total amount he can pay to injured people or relatives of those killed. And he alone - not GM - will decide how much they each will get, even though he is being paid by the company.

Feinberg wouldn’t estimate the ultimate cost for GM, saying he has no idea how many death or injury claims he will get. Based on the methodology he plans to employ, a large amount of claims could mean a sum running into the hundreds of millions of dollars, if not billions.

“GM has basically said whatever it costs to pay any eligible claims under the protocol they will pay it. There is no ceiling,” Feinberg said at a Monday news conference in Washington to announce details of the plan.

With the plan, GM is trying to limit its legal liabilities, control the damage to its image and eventually move beyond the crisis caused by its failure to correct the ignition switch problem for more than a decade, even as it learned of fatal crashes. The company recalled 2.6 million older small cars earlier this year to replace the switches.

Only those hurt in crashes caused by the small-car ignition switches are eligible, so the program excludes other GM safety problems. People filing claims will have to prove that the switches caused the crashes. Once their claim is settled, they give up their right to sue the company.