GM Payout Offers Begin

September, 2014

Automotive News reports on first payouts.

“Dozens of new claims have poured in each day, with the tally rising from 445 on Sept. 12 to more than 850 now. Fund administrator Kenneth Feinberg and his staff are just beginning to review them. Early results suggest that GM will pay for many more deaths and injuries than it had acknowledged, but many claims are likely to be rejected unless families can provide more evidence.

“A significant number of these submitted claims are completely ‘undocumented’ or ‘deficiently’ documented and cannot be processed until required supporting docs are submitted,” Camille Biros, Feinberg’s deputy, told Automotive News in an email.”….

“Two of the first payment offers went to the families of Amy Rademaker and Natasha Weigel, who died in October 2006 when a Chevrolet Cobalt driven by a friend left a rural Wisconsin road and crashed into some trees.

Weigel’s stepfather, Ken Rimer, said he and his wife met with Feinberg several weeks ago and submitted a claim under what’s known as “Track B,” a less streamlined alternative that allows for individual negotiations and consideration of extenuating circumstances. Their offer includes the fund’s $1 million per-death minimum plus an additional amount Rimer and his lawyer, Bob Hilliard, didn’t disclose.

“We kind of figured this was our best avenue,” Rimer said, explaining why they chose to take Feinberg’s offer and drop the lawsuit. “It simplifies things. Anytime you go in front of a judge and jury, you don’t know what’s going to happen.”  See

http://www.autonews.com/article/20140929/OEM11/309299975/gm-victim-fund-begins-payout-offers

Latest GM statistics show 153 claims made for crash deaths and 23 crash deaths deemed eligible for GM payout offers to be made.  Data as of September 26, 2014 are publicly available at 

http://www.gmignitioncompensation.com/docs/gmFacilityOps.pdf

See