GM Feinberg Ignition Switch Compensation Program Denies 91% of Claims
August, 2015
Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:
As of August 21, 2015, the Feinberg GM Ignition Compensation Claims Resolution Facility reported that it denied 91% of the 4,343 claims received.
For 473 fatality claims, Feinberg deemed 124 “eligible” and 349 (74%) “ineligible”.
For 279 Category One (Quadriplegia, Paraplegia, Double Amputations, Permanent Brain Damage, or Pervasive Burns) claims, Feinberg deemed 17 “eligible” and 262 (94%) “ineligible”.
For 3,591 Category Two (Physical injuries requiring hospitalization , or outpatient medical treatment, within 48 hours of the accident) claims, Feinberg deemed 258 “eligible” and 3,333 (93%) “ineligible”.
For the Total Claims 4,343 counted by Feinberg, 399 were deemed “eligible” and 3,944 (91%) “ineligible”.
See http://www.gmignitioncompensation.com/ and http://www.gmignitioncompensation.com/docs/Program_Statistics_8162015.pdf
As I wrote in my December 2014 Report delays, denials, obfuscations, and minimization by corporations and governmental agencies endanger us all – past, present, and future crash victims. See https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/assets/MonthlyReportforDecember2014.pdf
As I also wrote in June 2014, the amount of the compensation for victims planned was less than the $9.1 million value called for in the U.S. DOT Policy Guidance for each statistical life. Seehttps://www.careforcrashvictims.com/blog-feinberg-comp.php
If the GM Feinberg plan paid out $9 million to each of the 124 fatalities that Feinberg deemed eligible the total would exceed $1 Billion.
A series of recent reports noted the final statistics of the GM Feinberg program. See:
http://fortune.com/2015/08/24/feinberg-gm-faulty-ignition-switch/http://www.autonews.com/article/20150824/OEM/150829957/gm-ignition-switch-defects-tied-to-124-deaths-275-injuries-feinberghttp://www.thedetroitbureau.com/2015/08/gm-fund-denies-91-percent-of-ignition-recall-claims/
In July of this year Bloomberg reported on cases were not included under the GM Feinberg plan. See
And today we learn of a judicial ruling overturning a conviction of involuntary manslaughter for a driver involved in a fatal GM ignition switch crash in September 2010 that killed 16 year old Robert Chambers. See attached press announcement.
There are many stories of tragedies past, present, and future that need to be discovered and told so that fewer tragedies occur in the future.
Lou