Now that the Jan. 31 deadline for filing a compensation claim has passed, the General Motors ignition switch recall program to compensate victims reports that 4,342 claims for injuries and death linked to a defective ignition switch.

This updated number of victims who filed a compensation claim for the defective GM ignition switch recall includes 462 wrongful death claims and 282 severe injury claims that resulted in quadriplegia, paraplegia, double amputation, permanent brain damage or other catastrophic injuries. The remaining 3,493 claims for compensation are for serious injuries for which victims were hospitalized.

Attorney Kenneth Feinberg, who was hired by GM to compensate victims of the GM recall, has approved at least $1 million for 184 claims eligible for compensation to date including 100 wrongful death claims, as well as 8 severe injury claims. More than 626 cases are still under review while 72 percent of claims were found ineligible.

About $93 million has already been paid out to victims of the ignition defect but the amount of compensation has not been capped. GM has estimated that compensating all victims of the defective car part could cost the Detroit automaker anywhere from $400-600 million.

GM Recall Overview

In February 2014, General Motors recalled 1.6 million vehicles because of an ignition switch defect that has been linked to the deaths of 49 people. The GM recall includes the 2005-2010 Chevrolet Cobalt, 2007-2010 Pontiac G5, 2003-2007 Saturn Ion, 2006-2011 Chevrolet HHR, 2006-2010 Pontiac Solstice and 2007-2010 Saturn Sky vehicles.

The recall targeted a defect in nearly 6 million GM cars that caused the cars’ engines and electrical systems to shut off and disable the air bags. For a decade, GM and government safety regulators reportedly failed to address this defect and GM later admitted to knowing of the problem since 2004. It has been reported that GM could have fixed the defective switch for as little as 57 cents per vehicle and the automaker was eventually fined $35 million by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). In March 2014, a General Motors class action lawsuit was filed alleging GM excluded vehicles from recall and put consumers at risk.

GM Lawsuits

Since June, all claims filed against General Motors throughout the federal court system have been consolidated for pretrial proceedings in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, as part of a multidistrict litigation, or MDL.

The GM recall lawsuits are centralized before U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman to reduce duplicative discovery into common issues, avoid conflicting pretrial rulings and to serve the convenience of the parties, witnesses and the courts. Judge Furman has also set a bellwether process for the preparation of some of the GM recall injury class action lawsuits with the first case expected to go before a federal jury in January 2016.

In addition to the GM MDL, individual lawsuits are being filed against General Motors from victims who have decided not to take part in the settlement fund.