Following the failure of the first trial against General Motors over an ignition switch defect in their vehicles, attorney Lance Cooper is calling for the three lead lawyers on the case to be replaced. The attorneys leading the case against GM include Robert Hilliard, Steve Berman and Elizabeth Cabraser, who chose the first case to be heard against the motor company. The plaintiffs in the first claim, Robert Scheuer and his wife, had their case dropped soon after the trial began when it was suggested that Scheuer had fabricated a check that was being used as evidence in the case.

Cooper is representing several victims suing General Motors after they recalled millions of vehicles over a defect with the ignition switches, a flaw which caused several dangerous crashes. Cooper believes that the attorneys made poor decisions in Scheuer’s case, and that his should not have been the first claim brought against GM over the defect. Cooper has now petitioned to have the attorneys replaced, claiming the failure of Scheuer’s case will impact the results of every other claim involving the defect. Lead attorney Hilliard maintains that their decision to pursue Scheuer’s case first was appropriate. The trial is set to continue with another case in March. 

The next steps that you undertake following a car accident are crucial to avoid the prevalence of more injuries and to prevent further costs from arising. Here are some suggestions for you to consider if ever you are faced with the unfortunate consequences of a car accident.

It is important to have something that will allow you to document the details of your collision, such as a mobile phone or even a pen and paper, so that you can take note of emergency contact numbers, accident details, the extent of the damage caused, etc. You should also consider making it a habit to keep a card with and pertinent medical information, such as allergies or chronic conditions, on your person in case you are rendered unconscious and medical responders need to attend to you.

Drivers involved in the accident should try to move their vehicles to the side of the road if they are still functioning so as to avoid clogging traffic or causing other accidents. If this is not possible, the drivers should stay inside their respective vehicles and put their seat belts on while they await the arrival of emergency responders.

Our personal injury team at Pohl & Berk, LLP helps victims of accidents in Nashville or other areas of Tennessee bring lawsuits against those who caused their injuries. Speak with a qualified member of our team today by calling our offices at 615-277-2765.

A three-vehicle collision that happened at around 11:30 on the morning of Monday, January 4 on Highway 41 in Winchester, Tennessee, not quite 100 miles southeast of Nashville, has resulted in the deaths of a child and a woman, and the serious injury of the child’s brother and father.

According to preliminary investigations, a minivan containing Aaron Hill, his wife Lynette Hill, and their seven-year-old twin sons, was waiting for a red light to turn green at the intersection of Highway 41 and Bypass Road. While the minivan was stopped, a Kia Sedan being operated by 83-year-old Mary Parks and traveling at speeds of about 90 miles per hour crashed into the back of the Hills’ vehicle.

Chief of the Winchester Police Department, Dennis Young, said the vehicular accident was “traumatic,” and noted that there were “a lot of serious injuries with the children involved.” One of the boys, along with Parks, was killed in the collision. Parks’ passenger, Aaron Hill, and the other boy were taken to a hospital for treatment.

According to a recent article in the New York Times, internal Takata emails that were recently unsealed as a part of a personal injury lawsuit against the Japanese airbag manufacturer suggest that data from airbag testing may have been “misrepresented and manipulated.” So far, more than 20 million vehicles equipped with defective Takata airbags have been recalled and, unless the company can prove that the ammonium nitrate they use as a propellant in many of their airbags is safe, these numbers could increase.

The newly unsealed emails contain communications between Takata employees specifically regarding inflater testing in airbags that made use of the ammonium nitrate propellant. One email from a Takata airbag engineer contained the text “Happy Manipulating!!!” in addition to the results of airbag testing. Other emails include comments about changing the appearance of lines and colors in a graphic of testing results in an attempt to “dress it up” and “divert attention” from the results themselves.

In response to this new information, Takata has argued that these comments do not indicate data manipulation, but rather, are specifically regarding the formatting of data, and that they are not related to the airbags included in the current recall.