Lawyers are our champions

Lawyers are never at the top of anyone’s list of favorite people. Truth be told, many of us are not very nice. However, as I like to point out from time-to-time, the world would be a more dangerous place without lawyers.

The latest illustration of this point is General Motors’ flawed ignition switch designed for its Cobalts and Saturn Ions. The timeline of events is disturbing. The Cobalt and Ion went into production in 2002, but by 2004, GM knew that the vehicles’ ignition switches might be defective. GM commissioned an internal study after reports surfaced that Cobalts would suddenly turn off, disabling the air bags when the ignition switch was bumped, causing loss of control and, if there was a crash, no protection from the air bags.

At the conclusion of this review, GM realized there was a safety problem and issued a mere “service bulletin” — but short of a full recall — the bulletin simply warned its dealers of this design defect. Ultimately, GM chose not to do anything substantive about a known, and possibly lethal defect, because of the financial burden in retooling the assembly process to eliminate the risk.

In the meantime, tragically, Amber Marie Rose, a 16-year-old Maryland teen, died in 2005 when her Cobalt shut off unexpectedly and she crashed into a tree. According to investigators, had her air bags deployed she would have survived. GM almost immediately settled a lawsuit filed against it by her parents, which faulted the company for their daughter’s life being prematurely ended. However, the company insisted on a confidentiality clause that has since muzzled the family.

The National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is tasked with making sure our highways and vehicles on them are safe and it is sadly underfunded. The annual budget allocated to NHTSA to investigate defects is less than the annual salary of GM’s chief executive!!! As a result of the report of Amber’s preventable death, NHTSA opened up an investigation. It determined (surprise!) that Amber’s Cobalt was in the “accessory position” (meaning it was turned off) and the air bags failed to deploy. NHTSA took no other action.

In October 2006, another crash involving a 2005 Cobalt resulted in two deaths in Wisconsin. NHTSA investigated and determined (shock!) the Cobalt was in the “accessory position.” Yet, again, NHTSA took no other action. In the meantime, GM decided to take another peek at what its Cobalts were doing and found 10 other similar crashes (so, we are now up to 12) and reported its findings to NHTSA; it is actually a pretty toothless agency, so it is not clear what action it might have taken to prevent the future loss of life and limb.

While NHTSA was dithering, GM realized it had a problem. Stealthily, it engineered a switch that wouldn’t shut down when bumped. However, to keep this improvement quiet and avoid the expense of a recall, it used the same part number for the improved design to go into its new cars. Presumably, GM hoped that the defective switches would eventually go away with older car models being eventually cycled out of use.

Years later in March 2010, Georgia’s Brooke Melton died driving her 2005 Chevy Cobalt on her 29th birthday. When the vehicle shut down, she lost control and careened into the opposite lane of traffic. Even more outrageous, four days earlier, she had survived a similar episode, took her Cobalt to the dealer’s service station, where it was cleared for use. Guess what, investigators determined that it was in the “accessory position” and the air bags disabled.

Lance Cooper, an Atlanta trial attorney, was hired by Brooke’s family to sue GM. He and his engineering expert, Mark Hood, looked into the vehicle’s ignition switch and could not figure out what had happened. Mr. Hood ordered a new after-market replacement ignition switch and, when comparing it with the one from Brooke’s Cobalt, discovered what GM had done in designing a safer switch to put on the market, with the same deceptive part number.

In a belated mea culpa, GM finally issued a limited recall. However, Mr. Cooper wrote NHTSA a letter to inform the agency that this was just the tip of the iceberg. GM subsequently came clean and expanded its recall to 2.6 million units; GM’s duplicity was finally public, thanks to Lance Cooper’s digging.

What is this lesson? Big businesses can refuse to be held accountable until trial attorneys expose them. Keep this in mind the next time you feel like cursing our very existence.

Local attorney Jim Rockefeller owns the Rockefeller Law Center and is a former Houston County chief assistant district attorney and a former Miami prosecutor. Visit www.rockefellerlawcenter.com to submit confidential legal questions and to review former articles and frequently asked questions.

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