Solo practitioner ‘single-handedly set the stage’ for massive GM recall – ABA Journal
Solo practitioner ‘single-handedly set the stage’ for massive GM recall – ABA Journal
By Martha Neil
Although it had known for years about an issue with ignition switches in some General Motors vehicles, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration didn’t require a recall, lawyer Lance Cooper told Bloomberg.
It wasn’t until the Georgia solo practitioner dug for evidence against the automaker in a wrongful death case that the company recalled almost 800,000 vehicles last month, saying those cars could suddenly shut down if a driver jostled the ignition key or had it attached to a heavy ring of keys. Then Cooper wrote the NHTSA a letter, saying that a number of faulty vehicles hadn’t been recalled. Within days, GM had more than doubled the size of the recall, Bloomberg reports.
“He single-handedly set the stage for this recall,” auto-safety analyst Sean Kane said of Cooper.