GM Has Yet To Lose a Bellwether Ignition Switch Case

[Gorehamj]

John Goreham
Contributing Writer, GM-Trucks.com
5/30/2016

General Motors is actively participating in the cases being tried related to its ignition switch defect. We spotted an excellent overview of the progress of the bellwether cases at LegalReader.com. What we find interesting is that GM is winning - all the cases so far. Bellwether cases are used in a situation where both sides wish to engage in a settlement, but one side has many parties involved. The bellwether cases are used to form the basis for the settlement by acting as examples for the many cases pending.

 

None of the first four cases concluded resulted in a loss for GM. Here is a quick overview of the current six cases being looked at to act as bellwether cases as provided by LegalReader.com:

- The first ended abruptly in January 2016, when an Oklahoma man withdrew his case amidst accusations by GM that he lied on the witness stand about how he lost a new house he tried to buy after the accident.

- GM prevailed in the second trial when a New York federal jury found the New Orleans plaintiff was not injured by the ignition-switch defect at issue in her Saturn roadster.

-The third bellwether plaintiff, Nadia Yingling, entered a confidential settlement term sheet before trial began

-The fourth bellwether plaintiff voluntarily dismissed his case.

-The Virginia woman involved in the fifth bellwether, Stephanie Cockram, urged the judge to allow her case to include evidence of more than 50 additional car accidents purportedly caused by GM’s ignition switch defect, arguing that all of those incidents shared the central characteristics of her own severe crash.

Her case is set to take place from September 12, 2016 through September 30, 2016

- The sixth and final bellwether is set to start on November 14, 2016.