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The Archdiocese of Milwaukee has been running a tab when it comes to professionals working on its chapter 11 bankruptcy case, and lawyers for unsecured creditors — primarily survivors of sexual abuse — say that it is time to pay the bills, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Court records show the archdiocese has stacked up more cash than it projected back in January 2013, when it petitioned the bankruptcy court to suspend monthly professional fee payments on the grounds money was tight, according to papers filed by creditor lawyers led by James Stang. With a few exceptions, bankruptcy professionals have not been paid in 17 months, court papers say. As of the end of June, the archdiocese reported it had run up $5.8 million worth of fees, court records show. Whyte Hirschboeck Dudek S.C., the lead lawyer for the archdiocese, is owed the most, $2.9 million. Lead creditor firm Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones is owed $1.9 million, court records show. Lawyers for survivors contend that the archdiocese has the money, and it should pay. Creditors tracked the actual cash from the start of 2013, when the archdiocese moved for permission to suspend fee payments. They found the actual funds were always greater than projected in papers supporting the motion. This year, instead of the $2 million the archdiocese said it needed to keep on hand for operating expenses, it has had from $3.5 million to $4.2 million, according to creditors.

Amid calls for his firing for his department’s role in not revealing a safety defect linked to 13 deaths, General Motors’ top lawyer said yesterday that the company won’t waive its bankruptcy protection from court claims linked to millions of defective vehicles, the Detroit Free Press reported today. GM’s general counsel, Michael Millikin, told a U.S. Senate panel that it will only agree to pay claims processed through a fund created by the automaker and run by compensation expert Ken Feinberg. For other claims connected to the ignition defect from before its bankruptcy, GM plans to invoke its liability shield, Millikin said. Millikin also said GM will not unseal earlier legal settlements linked to the defect or release documents made available to former U.S. Attorney Anton Valukas.

A Senate panel today will zero in on how General Motors hid a deadly vehicle defect for years, and what can be done to prevent corporations from keeping safety issues secret from consumers and regulators, the New York Times reported today. The hearing in Washington, D.C., will be the fourth appearance before Congress by Mary T. Barra, GM’s chief executive, since the automaker began recalling millions of small cars in February to repair a faulty ignition switch tied to 13 deaths. But lawmakers are now looking beyond why GM repeatedly did not fix defective switches, and focusing on how it kept accident victims, their families and government officials in the dark. Joining Ms. Barra on the witness stand will be Michael P. Millikin, GM’s general counsel, whose legal staff fought ignition lawsuits for years despite knowing that company engineers and investigators were aware of safety issues and related accidents.

GM's responses to crashes cast doubt on how forthright the automaker was with regulators over a defective ignition switch that GM has linked to at least 13 deaths over the last decade, the New York Times reported today. Examining its replies to queries in other crashes obtained from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the company repeatedly found a way not to answer the simple question from regulators of what led to a crash. In at least three cases of fatal crashes, GM said that it had not assessed the cause. In another fatal crash, GM said that attorney-client privilege may have prevented it from answering. And in other cases, the automaker was more blunt, writing, “GM opts not to respond.” The responses came even though GM had for years been aware of sudden power loss in the models involved in the accidents.

General Motors Co. Chief Executive Mary Barra returns to Capitol Hill this week for what may be her last and toughest hearings with U.S. lawmakers over the automaker's botched response to a faulty ignition switch that has landed GM in hot water with federal regulators and the Justice Department, the Wall Street Journal reported today. On Thursday, Barra will face Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), one of her harshest critics, and Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), who remains skeptical of GM's response to the issue and its internal probe that cleared the automaker's executive team and pinned the lack of response on lower-level engineers, lawyers and a dysfunctional company culture. It took the automaker nearly 11 years to issue a recall for the 2.6 million Chevrolet Cobalt, Saturn Ion and other older model vehicles equipped with the faulty switch. The company has dismissed 15 employees, disciplined five others, revamped some of its internal operations and recalled millions of cars for a variety of issues. Compensation expert Kenneth Feinberg, hired by GM to handle payouts to victims, will also testify and is expected to be asked for more information on how many people he estimates have been hurt or killed as a result of the faulty switch. Chicago attorney Anton Valukas, who handled GM's internal probe, has also been called to testify.

When Freedom Industries Inc. sought chapter 11 protection shortly after chemicals leaked from its storage tank into a river, it was expected to face an onslaught of bankruptcy claims from the 300,000 some West Virginians whose water supply was contaminated as a result of the spill, the Wall Street Journal reported today. But as of July 3, just 70 claims were on file in Freedom’s bankruptcy case, court papers show, despite a broad campaign to advertise the Aug. 1 deadline by which individuals and businesses affected by the spill must stake their claims for compensation from Freedom, which has shut down since entering chapter 11. With the deadline fast approaching, the Charleston, W.Va., bankruptcy court this week authorized additional advertisements targeting the areas hit hardest by the spill — the West Virginia counties of Kanawha, Boone and Putnam. James W. Lane Jr., as the court-appointed official in charge of gathering claims, will lead the charge. In court papers, he said he plans to not only continue advertising in local newspapers, at a cost of up to $5,000 but also hit the radio waves. He’s aiming to broadcast 30-second ads with information on how to file claims, with 60 ads running per week for two to three weeks at a cost of up to $5,300.

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.

General Motors Co. Chief Executive Mary Barra and General Counsel Mike Millikin have been called to testify next week before a senate subcommittee investigating why it took the company nearly 11 years to recall older small cars equipped with a faulty ignition switch, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The witness list also includes Chicago Attorney Anton Valukas, Delphi Automotive PLC CEO Rodney O'Neal and compensation expert Kenneth Feinberg who is handling payouts to any driver, passenger, pedestrian or occupant of another car hurt or killed in accidents attributed to the faulty ignition switch. The slate of witnesses is the biggest yet and suggests senators will probe the issue much more than their counterparts in the House, which held its hearing last month. Some senators have been critical of an internal investigation conducted by Valukas which cleared Barra and her executive team of any wrong doing while pinning most of the blame on switch designer Ray DeGiorgio.

General Motors Co., which has set a record for recalls this year as it tries to clear up lingering safety issues, is making an exception for rusting brake lines in almost 1.8 million pickups and sport-utility vehicles, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Much like it did initially with flawed ignition switches in small cars linked to at least 13 deaths, GM says that the corroded lines aren’t a safety hazard that requires a recall. Even with at least 26 crashes, three injuries and a four-year-old probe by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, GM is characterizing potential brake failure as normal wear-and-tear.

Six insurance companies are suing an asbestos personal injury trust set up by a U.S. unit of Philips that the insurers suspect has been making millions of dollars in fraudulent payments to parties that cannot prove they were harmed by the company's asbestos products, Reuters reported on Thursday. In the lawsuit, the insurers are seeking access to trust records. The insurers said that the asbestos personal injury or PI trust set up during the 2008 bankruptcy of T H Agriculture & Nutrition LLC, a unit of Philips Electronics North America Corp., had been paying substantially more claims than originally forecast. "Plaintiffs have a reasonable suspicion that fraudulent claims have been submitted to and paid by the asbestos PI trust," said the lawsuit, which was filed on Wednesday in Delaware's Court of Chancery.