Eight attorneys general oppose GM plan

NEW YORK, June 22 (UPI) -- Attorneys general from eight states said they oppose General Motors' bankruptcy plan because it cancels U.S. lawsuits filed by victims of faulty products.

Attorneys general from Connecticut, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Vermont, Nebraska and North Dakota filed an objection to the plan, saying it will wipe out the chance for victims to sue over any GM product sold before it emerges from bankruptcy, The Detroit News reported Monday.

As it is, the reorganization plan would make about 30 million GM vehicles immune from lawsuits.

GM spokesman Tom Wilkinson said liquidating GM would not have helped, as there would have been little left over for crash victims if they won a lawsuit.

But Lynn LoPucki, a law professor at the University of California in Los Angeles, said the plan was "end-running" an established Chapter 11 process.

Given GM's product liability budget of $928 million in 2008, against revenues of $149 billion, "this is such a strange decision," she said.

"The figures aren't going to be that big," she said. "They should assume liability for their cars. Instead, they give people a very good reason to not buy their cars."

Chrysler's bankruptcy also wiped out the chance for 10 million drivers of Chrysler products to sue the Chrysler Group, the company that emerged with Chrysler's good assets on June 10.