{"id":1178,"date":"2015-11-19T15:08:41","date_gmt":"2015-11-19T15:08:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/washington-dc\/federal-judge-rules-plaintiffs-may-seek-punitive-damages-in-faulty-gm-ignition-switch-lawsuits\/"},"modified":"2022-09-14T13:04:36","modified_gmt":"2022-09-14T18:04:36","slug":"federal-judge-rules-plaintiffs-may-seek-punitive-damages-in-faulty-gm-ignition-switch-lawsuits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/washington-dc\/federal-judge-rules-plaintiffs-may-seek-punitive-damages-in-faulty-gm-ignition-switch-lawsuits\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal Judge Rules Plaintiffs May Seek Damages in GM Lawsuits"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><b>Automaker could face millions in additional damages<\/b><\/h3>\n<p>Plaintiffs alleging they were hurt by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/washington-dc\/practice-areas\/defective-product-attorneys\/car-product-liability-and-faulty-automobile\/gm-ignition-switch-recall-lawsuit\/\">faulty GM ignition switches<\/a> may seek punitive damages in their lawsuits, according to a ruling handed down by a New York federal bankruptcy judge. General Motors Company LLC (\u201cnew GM\u201d) sought to release itself from the liabilities of the admittedly faulty ignition developed by the automaker\u2019s previous incarnation, General Motors Corporation (\u201cold GM\u201d).<\/p>\n<p>Punitive damages are a special type of award given to plaintiffs in civil lawsuits. While not specifically handed down to reward the plaintiff, punitive damages are actually meant to punish wrongdoers and deter others from engaging in similarly egregious conduct.<\/p>\n<p>While bankruptcy laws shield \u201cnew GM\u201d from many of the civil and financial liabilities of \u201cold GM\u201d, the judge presiding over the case ruled the \u201cnew GM\u201d kept many of the engineers and executives with knowledge of the defective ignition switches. By retaining \u201cold GM\u2019s\u201d staff with knowledge of the defective switches, \u201cnew GM\u201d retained liability for the defective engineering.<\/p>\n<p>At least 169 people were killed and hundreds more injured by deadly GM ignition switches. The switches were built with springs unable to adequately hold keys in the run position. A slight bump of the driver\u2019s knee or a weighted key chain could cause the key to change position and shut off the vehicle\u2019s power steering, brakes, and airbags.<\/p>\n<p>Although proving a defendant\u2019s negligence was willful and wanton enough to warrant the dispersal of punitive damages is a difficult legal challenge, GM\u2019s admission it withheld safety information from federal regulators may be a nail in its own coffin. Attorneys representing victims and their families hurt by the defective GM ignition switches remain confident the case will be made GM\u2019s actions were so reckless they necessitate punitive damages.<\/p>\n<p>The product liability attorneys of The Cochran Firm, D.C. are actively monitoring the situation with the defective GM ignition switches. Our attorneys offer free legal consultations to victims hurt by GM\u2019s careless actions. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/washington-dc\/contact-us\/\">Contact The Cochran Firm, D.C.<\/a> to see if you have a case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Automaker could face millions in additional damages Plaintiffs alleging they were hurt by faulty GM ignition switches may seek punitive damages in their lawsuits, according to a ruling handed down by a New York federal bankruptcy judge. General Motors Company LLC (\u201cnew GM\u201d) sought to release itself from the liabilities of the admittedly faulty ignition [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"Federal Judge Rules Plaintiffs May Seek Damages in GM Lawsuits","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/washington-dc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/washington-dc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/washington-dc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/washington-dc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/washington-dc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1178"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/washington-dc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6255,"href":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/washington-dc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1178\/revisions\/6255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/washington-dc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/washington-dc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/washington-dc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}