Judge Urged to Replace Lead Attorneys in GM Ignition Switch Trials

The trio of lawyers leading a team that represents dozens of victims of faulty General Motors Co. ignition switches bungled the first case and should be replaced, declares a rival lawyer on the team.

The motion to remove co-leads Robert Hilliard, Steve Berman and Elizabeth Cabraser comes from Lance Cooper. He is the attorney who first exposed the faulty switches that led to GM’s belated recall of 2.6 million vehicles in 2014.

Cooper and the other three lawyers are part of a 10-attorney executive committee that is coordinating more than 100 lawsuits about the switches. The cases have been consolidated in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan as a multi-district litigation.

Cooper’s motion says Hilliard, Berman and Cabraser mismanaged what was supposed to be a bellwether case—a complaint by Robert Scheuer—intended to set the stage for subsequent trials. Scheuer alleged that injuries he suffered in a crash exacerbated by a defective switch eventually led to him and his wife being evicted from their recently purchased “dream” home.

The case was abruptly dropped last week after GM presented evidence that Scheuer doctored a federal check stub to facilitate the home purchase. He and his wife may face perjury charges.

Cooper’s motion accuses the trio of attorneys of rejecting a stronger bellwether case in favor of the Scheuer lawsuit to maintain control over the litigation and collect fatter fees. As a result, Cooper claims, they failed in their fiduciary duty to other plaintiffs as required by the multi-district litigation.