GM Ignition Recall

Kacy Hagerty: We’ve talked a lot about the recent GM Ignition Recall and today with The Higgins Firm, we’re talking about how it impacts you and your legal rights if your car was the one involved. Attorney Jim Higgins recently stopped by to explain.

>All right, Jim, welcome back to the show.

Jim Higgins: Sure.

Kacy Hagerty: Good to have you. All right, hopefully, this isn’t the case for our viewers, but if someone has a car that has been recalled, what options do they have? Do they have legal options?

Jim Higgins: Well, you know, chances are it probably is one of the viewers, because we’ve had thousands of these recalls, right, over the past year. From GM recall with ignition switch to the recent airbag recalls. So, if you have gotten one of those, you know, the first thing to obviously do is go down to your dealership and have them repair it.

Now, do you have legal rights just because you’re in the recall? If you haven’t had an accident or anything horrible happen (or hope that) you have it, you know, you’re probably going to be wrapped up in one of these class action lawsuits that are going on. You may get some nominal award or help because of that, because of the trouble it caused to people. But, it’s probably not something you would just go down and hire a lawyer for - immediately to help you with that.

Kacy Hagerty: All right. Now, what if someone has been in the car accident with one of these recalled cars?

Jim Higgins: Sure.

Kacy Hagerty: What should they do in that case or maybe just a love one?

Jim Higgins: Well, that’s obviously a different story and, you know, our office is investigating some of these recalled cases where that has happened and it’s truly tragic. If - when you have an accident and a lot of these that we’re seeing would be a one car accident, the thing you have to do at the beginning is get that evidence secure. So, you need the car.

Kacy Hagerty: Yes.

Jim Higgins: You know, and you want to know (if in that car)[00:01:41], how it performed? Did the airbags deployed? Did the seatbelt work? Did it roll over or what happened? Did the mechanisms in that car perform like they were supposed to keep that person safe? So, the first thing to do is to keep the car if we think it was - maybe because of one of these recalls and have an expert come and examine the car.

Kacy Hagerty: Yes. OK. Now, you mentioned needing to have the car, but what if the car accident happened a while ago and the car is gone now?

Jim Higgins: Yes. It definitely makes things harder. There’s no doubt about that. I will say it’s not always impossible. For instance, one of the cases we’re looking at now - we had photographs of the car that the police took. It’s a one car accident and we could see that it was a big impact from the car, and that the airbags did not deploy. So - and it was a car that was one of the recalled cars, so you can do it but it’s hard, you need contact someone as soon as possible if you think you’ve been a victim of one these recalls.

Kacy Hagerty: All right, you’re helping out a lot of people. Thank you so much for being here.

Jim Higgins: Sure.

Kacy Hagerty: The Higgins Firm is serving Tennessee. Give them a call at 615-924-8500 or go to higginsfirm.com.