Majority of Ignition Switch Claims Rejected by GM

General Motors recently completed processing thousands of injury and death claims associated with its 2.6 million-vehicle ignition switch recall; however, the compensation fund set up to pay victims for their injuries and lost loved ones rejected roughly 90% of the claims. According to statistics released by the fund, only 399 of the 4,434 claims were in fact approved to receive payments from the $625 million fund, which included 124 deaths—10 times GM’s initial estimate. The claims stemmed from GM’s long-delayed recall of cars equipped with its faulty ignition switch design, which caused the vehicle’s key system to slip out of the “on” mode in the ignition—powering down the entire vehicle, rendering safety features useless, and causing significant physical and economic harm.