So the class action lawsuit against General Motors is now heating up due to their defective
braking systems.
And if you're a GM truck owner, you may be interested to hear how GM did this.
Hi, I'm Neil Woods.
I'm an attorney here at Woods & Woods, and we help people nationwide who have been injured
by defective products.
General Motors produced a defective braking system that entered, right now, unknown numbers
of vehicles.
The vehicles that we do know that the defective braking system is on is the 2015 to 2018 Cadillac
Escalades, the 2014 to 2018 Chevrolet Silverados, 2015 to 2018 Chevrolet Suburbans and Tahoes,
and then 2014 to 2018 GMC Sierras and Yukons and Yukon Denali XLs.
So here's what happened.
GM put in a faulty vacuum pump in the braking system.
So what that did is essentially when that vacuum pump goes bad the brakes just fail
right away.
This could happen when you're going down the road.
Hopefully it doesn't happen to you there.
A lot of people have noticed just when they're driving around in a parking lot.
But here's how this whole thing got going.
In 2018 GM started a recall on their trucks that had these problems.
Now there was a lot of chatter out there about these brakes being defective before the recall.
In 2015 GM started sending bulletins to their dealerships letting them know about some of
the issues with the brake systems.
Well as we know now, a lot of the information in those bulletins were false.
And not just a little false, they were very false.
What that tells us is that General Motors was trying to get ahead of this defective
braking system, and control the information and the story behind the brakes.
Well that's just not the way things work in the long run.
GM can hide what they've done for a little while, but eventually the law firms are going
to come after them for the bad things that they've done.
So these bulletins, it wasn't just one or two.
It was multiple bulletins to the dealerships explaining to them how to fix these defective-braking
systems.
So they were essentially telling the dealerships what the wrong problem, and then telling them
how to fix the problem that really didn't exist.
They weren't getting to the big part of it that was the vacuum pump in the brake.
So in these lawsuits, the first thing we want to talk about is who's going to be eligible
in these lawsuits?
First of all, the drivers of the GM trucks and SUV's are going to be eligible if they
were hurt in an accident.
The other people that are going to be eligible in this is the passengers in the GM truck
or SUV that were hurt because of the defective brakes.
Pedestrians who were hit by an out-of-control GM truck or SUV may also be eligible to join
this lawsuit.
The other people who may be able to join this lawsuit are the drivers of the other vehicles
who were hit by the GM truck or SUV that had the defective braking system on it.
Because we rely on brakes the whole time that we're driving, and particularly at high speeds
and we're in emergency situations, a lot of these wrecks probably resulted in very serious
injuries and potentially even death.
So if you were seriously injured, or a family member of yours was lost in one of these GM
trucks or SUV's, here's the types of compensation that may come from the lawsuit.
First and foremost, medical bills.
And here's the reason why.
If you've ever been in a serious accident or you know someone who's been in a serious
accident, you know how long the road to recovery takes.
You may be in the ICU a long time.
You have a lot of corrective surgeries.
You may even have rehabilitation that can potentially go on for years, or even the rest
of the victims lifetime.
These lawsuits against General Motors may cover all of those medical bills from the
past, present, and future.
Now car repair costs could also be a part of this lawsuit.
Because a lot of these accidents were at high speed, we expect that a lot of these vehicles
had serious damage, and you may have an insurance company out there who's denying paying the
bills on the car repair.
So then on top of that you have compensation for the loss of a loved one.
The law allows families that lose a loved one from a personal injury or a defective
product to recover compensation.
The other type of compensation is potentially punitive damages.
Punitive damages are not as common because legislatures around the country have really
restricted how they work, but they could potentially be there.
Punitive damages are given to plaintiffs when companies act egregiously or outrageous.
Well in this case there may be a potential that we're able to show that GM acted outrageous
because they knew this problem existed, they sent out false bulletins, and then they never
really fixed the underlying issue with the brakes.
So a lot of victims of these GM trucks and SUVs are going to also be able to receive
money for pain and suffering.
Pain and suffering, the law allows for compensation for that because accident victims and their
family members go through a lot after an accident.
Emotional stress is another form of that.
Lost wages, that's something that we expect to be a big part of a lot of plaintiff's settlements.
Here's why.
When you're in a serious accident you miss a lot of time from work, and lot of people
may be disabled from the accident and will never be able to return to work.
The law allows victims of personal injury and defective products to obtain money for
lost wages.
One of the big questions we always get over here is, can I afford a lawyer?
And yes you can.
In these types of cases, you're not going to pay your lawyer up front.
The way you pay your lawyer is only if you win these cases.
If you do not win in the lawsuit against GM for defective brakes, you're not going to
pay us anything.
So reach out to us.
Have a conversation with us.
Talk to us about the accident that affected you or a loved one.
What we're going to do is see if you were in one of the vehicles we think that was a
part of this, and then we're going to potentially investigate, look and see what's there, work
with other law firms.
This is new litigation.
This is just getting going.
We suggest you get in on the ground floor.
Join this before some of the statute of limitations, which could prevent you from filing a lawsuit
before some of those take effect.
And they will eventually.
So if you have any questions reach out to Woods & Woods.
We'll be more than happy to talk to you about this and see what's available to you or family.