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Owners of about 16.5 million Honda and Acura vehicles with potentially defective Takata air bags are eligible for financial aid in getting their cars fixed and up to $500 in compensation under the terms of a new consumer settlement, <em>USA Today</em> reported on Friday. Japanese automaker Honda agreed to a $605 million class-action settlement covering economic losses suffered by the U.S. owners of vehicles fitted with Takata air bags. Victims of the defect will receive compensation from a separate fund. The deal comes after similar agreements between Takata air bag vehicle owners and Nissan, Toyota, BMW, Mazda and Subaru.

Parties involved in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis bankruptcy proceedings made final arguments in front of a federal judge on Tuesday, with each side making accusations of deceptive tactics and baseless claims, the St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press reported yesterday. The proceedings are intended to work out a plan for paying survivors of sexual abuse at the hands of clergy. After listening to arguments by multiple attorneys, presiding U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Kressel took the case under advisement. Judge Kressel is expected to make a decision in the coming weeks on which reorganization plan will be used in the settlement. Two plans are under consideration in the wake of the archdiocese’s chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in January 2015. The first was crafted by lawyers for the archdiocese and rejected by the group of survivors. The second was submitted by attorneys for the survivors.

Companies have the choice of taking legal action when they feel they have been wronged, but consumers are frequently blocked from exercising the same legal right when they believe that companies have wronged them, according to an op-ed by Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Richard Cordray in today’s New York Times. That’s because many contracts for products like credit cards and bank accounts have mandatory arbitration clauses that prevent consumers from joining group lawsuits, forcing them to go it alone, according to Cordray. For example, a group lawsuit against Wells Fargo for secretly opening phony bank accounts was blocked by arbitration clauses that pushed individual consumers into closed-door proceedings. In 2010, Cordray said that the CFPB was authorized to study mandatory arbitration and write rules consistent with the study. After five years of work, we recently finalized a rule to stop companies from denying groups of consumers the option of going to court when they are treated unfairly. The rule does not ban individual arbitration, as our opponents falsely claim, according to Cordray. It simply ensures that consumers have the option of joining together to sue companies. Companies and consumers can still use arbitration to resolve their differences, but companies cannot unilaterally block group lawsuits, Cordray writes.

General Motors Co. thwarted a $15 million settlement between the company’s bankruptcy trust and thousands of plaintiffs that would have forced the automaker to contribute $1 billion in stock, prompting claims of a secret plot cooked up behind closed doors, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The now-derailed deal was intended to resolve hundreds of personal-injury cases stemming from GM’s faulty ignition switches, as well as a class-action suit over millions of vehicles that allegedly lost value due to a series of recalls in 2014. In a letter filed yesterday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, lawyers for the plaintiffs said that GM conspired with the trust to block the accord after GM previously accused the trust and the plaintiffs of engaging in the same behavior in negotiations last week. GM "undertook a secret, contrived scheme to undermine the settlement agreement through a campaign of threats, intimidation and payoffs," plaintiffs attorney Edward Weisfelner said in the letter, which was dated Wednesday. Detroit-based GM had fumed at the settlement and promised a court fight over what it called a "contrived scheme" to extract the $1 billion in stock. The company has been fighting to move on from the litigation after previously paying at least $870 million to settle claims and an additional $900 million to the Department of Justice to resolve a criminal probe.

Automakers yesterday won a temporary reprieve from lawsuits filed by victims of defective air bags made by bankrupt Takata Corp that led to the largest-ever auto safety recall and at least 18 deaths, Reuters reported. The decision gives the Japanese auto supplier breathing room to work through its bankruptcy reorganization. Bankruptcy Judge Brendan Shannon in Wilmington, Delaware, granted a 90-day halt on lawsuits brought by Hawaii, New Mexico, the U.S. Virgin Islands as well as individuals. He did not extend the shield to 48 federal cases that extend across several districts, saying that the lawsuits had already advanced. Takata argued for a six-month freeze on hundreds of lawsuits so management could complete a $1.6 billion sale of its viable operations, crucial to its reorganization, and replace air bag inflators that are subject to the biggest recall in automotive history. Judge Shannon said that he was "extremely sensitive" to the plaintiffs' cases but believed a "breathing spell" for Takata was appropriate. The stay expires on Nov. 15.

A petition has been filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware that could force SpeedVegas, a driving experience south of Las Vegas, into bankruptcy, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported today. A rare involuntary petition for bankruptcy protection was filed Saturday and amended yesterday listing six petitioners seeking at least $5,259 each. To file an involuntary petition, at least three creditors must seek payment totaling a minimum $15,775. In the SpeedVegas petition, creditors are seeking at least $15,777. SpeedVegas was the scene of a car accident that killed a Canadian tourist driving a Lamborghini and a driving instructor who was in the car’s passenger seat. An investigation by the Nevada Office of Safety and Health found that SpeedVegas had a substandard fire and safety plan and failed to properly train employees in fire suppression, although the agency ruled that wasn’t a contributing factor in the accident. The agency, which reviewed the crash as a workplace accident, recommended fines totaling $16,000 on three citations involving seven violations. SpeedVegas has until Thursday to contest the citations and fines.

Plaintiffs suing General Motors Co. over faulty ignition switches and other alleged vehicle defects have reached a $1 billion settlement requiring the automaker to turn over that amount of stock, a lawyer for the plaintiffs said in a court hearing on Friday, Reuters reported. GM lawyer Richard Godfrey strongly criticized the agreement, telling U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman in Manhattan the Detroit-based company was given no say in the deal negotiated between the plaintiffs and a trust set up for creditors of “old GM,” which holds many liabilities predating the automaker's 2009 bankruptcy. Godfrey said that the settlement was a result of collusion between the plaintiffs and the trust, and "a complete surrender and sellout using new GM's money." The ignition switch litigation consolidated before Furman stems from GM's 2014 recall of 2.6 million vehicles with defective switches. One type of switch has been linked to nearly 400 injuries and 124 deaths. The claims have expanded to include a variety of alleged defects in millions of cars.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) wants to know where the nation’s biggest banks stand on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s new rule banning companies from stripping consumers of their right to join class action lawsuits, The Hill reported today. Warren sent a letter yesterday to the CEOs of the 16 largest financial firms, including Bank of America and Wells Fargo & Co., asking whether they oppose the rule limiting use of language, know as arbitration clauses, in consumer contracts that force consumers to settle disputes privately with an independent third party. House Republicans passed a resolution late last month to repeal the controversial rule under the Congressional Review Act. Business and bank lobbying groups reportedly claim the rule limits consumer choices and makes it harder to collect from bad actors.