General Motors raised the total number of deaths eligible for compensation related to the company’s defective ignition switches to 42, after four more deaths were found eligible in the past week.

According to the latest report released by Kenneth Feinberg, who was hired by the automaker to make sure victims of the GM ignition switch were properly compensated, it has so far been determined that 42 deaths, seven crippling injuries such as brain damage and 51 other injuries were eligible for payment.

Feinberg began accepting claims on Aug. 1 and has extended the claim filing deadline by a month to Jan. 31, 2015. The deadline was extended to ensure that anyone eligible to file a claim had been contacted and had the time necessary to compile the information needed to file.

So far, Feinberg’s office has made 61 offers to individuals affected by the GM ignition switch defect and recall and has yet to reject any claims. Multiple claims are still under review. The amount of compensation has not been capped but GM has estimated that compensating all victims of the defective car part could cost the Detroit automaker anywhere from $400 million to $600 million.

GM Ignition Recall

Since February 2014, General Motors has recalled 2.6 million vehicles because of an ignition switch defect, including 2.2 million in the United States, affected by the ignition switch.

The problem, which the automaker allegedly knew about for more than a decade, can cause the driver to lose control of the vehicle. GM initially tied the problem to 13 deaths, but has since seen that number rise to the aforementioned 42 deaths.

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 GM recall targeted a flaw that allowed an ignition switch to move out of the “run” position — and was found to cause air bags to fail to deploy during a crash. It was later determined that GM actually knew of the problem since 2004.

The automaker is also under investigation by Congress, regulators and the Justice Department over issues related to the faulty ignition switch.

GM Lawsuits

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

The GM ignition switch 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 GM lawsuit expected to go before a federal jury in January 2016.