The schedule has been set for the first injury and wrongful death GM lawsuits related to the GM recall over alleged ignition switch problems.

In 2014, GM recalled 28 million cars, resulting in a $1.2 billion loss for the company. This recall was over alleged GM ignition switch issues. Allegedly, a defect in GM ignition switches causes some vehicles’ ignition circuits to switch from the on position to an auxiliary or standby position.

In this auxiliary position, a car’s engine powers off and the airbags deactivate. If this happened while driving, it could theoretically lead to a serious accident, and disable a key safety feature simultaneously.

Some of the GM lawsuits over the ignition switch problems have even alleged wrongful death. Modern vehicles have extensive onboard electronics, and in the event of a crash, they may act as a sort of black box.

In some GM lawsuits, these onboard electronics have recorded that the vehicles’ ignition systems switched into the auxiliary positions seconds before fatal accidents.

Many of the GM ignition switch lawsuits have alleged that individuals at GM were aware of the GM ignition switch problems. General Motors has been thoroughly investigated by various federal agencies and even the Senate.

According to GM’s own internal investigators, hired during the recall, key individuals at GM were aware of the problem as early as 10 years prior to the GM recall, but a “widespread culture of incompetence” prevented quick or meaningful action on the issue, leading to the lag of a decade prior to the widespread recall.

Details are still coming to light of alleged half-measures, including secretive settlements on early GM lawsuits, partial recalls and other stopgap efforts to try and preempt large-scale recall that took place in 2014.

The litigation over the GM ignition switch problems has taken the form of a multidistrict litigation or MDL. MDLs are designed to helps streamline the legal process by combining similar lawsuits into a single legal action.

During the course of MDL, specific lawsuits that represent key elements of other cases in the MDL are tried early. These cases, called bellwether trials, establish precedents and decide how the rest of the lawsuits in the MDL will proceed.

The court coordinating the various GM lawsuits in the MDL have recently announced the dates for the first bellwether trials. After pushes from plaintiffs for trials as early as possible, the first court dates were set for January 2016. This scheduling was described as “aggressive” for an MDL this complex. It is suspected that the number of wrongful death GM lawsuits alone could potentially be in the hundreds.