A plaintiffs firm that has sued General Motors Co. over accidents related to an ignition switch defect is continuing to file lawsuits even as its clients prepare to make claims against a victim compensation fund, the National Law Journal reported today. Montgomery, Ala.’s Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, which claims to be investigating more than 250 crashes that could be linked to ignition switch problems, filed suit on Wednesday on behalf of Daniel Hollaert, 23, who died on Dec. 17, 2013, when his 2006 Chevy Cobalt crashed into a school bus in Orleans County, N.Y. The suit, filed in Monroe County, N.Y., Supreme Court, a trial venue, blames the crash on the defect, which GM has acknowledged can shut down engines, disabling airbags, power steering and other functions. The suit came the same day that a lawyer for Hollaert’s family, Beasley Allen founding shareholder Jere Beasley, met with Kenneth Feinberg, who is administering a fund to compensate people who died or were injured as a result of GM’s defect. Beasley said that making claims against the fund doesn’t bar his clients from filing lawsuits against GM.
