In re General Motors Ignition Switch Litigation
United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
2016 WL 1441804 (2016)
- Written by Angela Patrick, JD
Facts
Lance Cooper (plaintiff) was the first attorney to discover that the ignition switch in certain General Motors vehicles was defective and had caused personal injuries and deaths. Numerous cases were filed about the switch, and the federal cases were consolidated in multidistrict litigation (MDL). The MDL court appointed Robert Hilliard (defendant) as lead counsel to coordinate the plaintiffs’ personal-injury and death claims. The court also provided procedures for other plaintiffs’ attorneys to raise concerns with the court if needed. The parties selected six bellwether cases to try. The plaintiff in the first bellwether was Hilliard’s client, and the case collapsed when the plaintiff committed perjury. The next day, Cooper filed a motion to have Hilliard removed as lead counsel, accusing Hilliard of mismanagement and professional misconduct. Most notably, Cooper accused Hilliard of playing games with the sequence of the bellwether cases to pressure another plaintiff’s attorney to share fees with Hilliard, which ultimately harmed the plaintiff’s interests.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Furman, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 899,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 47,000 briefs, keyed to 994 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
