On Wednesday, US Federal District Court Judge Jesse Furman dismissed a motion filed by Georgia attorney Lance Cooper to remove lead counsel Robert Hilliard, Elizabeth Cabraser, and Steve Berman as 'Monday morning quarterbacking.' He concluded that Mr Cooper had 'little or no evidence' to support his '(sometimes wild) accusations of impropriety and underhandedness' against the three lawyers. Mr Cooper, who is credited with first uncovering the GM ignition switch defect that has been linked to 124 deaths, is also representing plaintiffs at trial later this year.

'Not even close'

The attempt to remove Mr Hilliard, Ms Cabraser and Mr Berman came after the first of six bellwether trials unexpectedly fell apart in court last month. Mr Cooper has previously commented that the withdrawn first case against GM marked the culmination of 'a long series of poor decisions and mismanagement' on the part of the three lead counsel. However, Judge Furman concluded that Mr Cooper's motion did 'not even come close' to establishing a legal basis for removing the lawyers midway through MDL proceedings that 'all things considered, have proceeded remarkably smoothly and swiftly to date.' Judge Furman also reprimanded the lawyers to 'stop litigating their grievances with one another (especially in the press) and get back to focusing on their common adversary, New GM.'

Second motion dismissed

Judge Furman also dismissed a second motion by Mr Cooper that called on the court to reconsider its approval of a $275m settlement brokered last year between GM and Mr Hilliard. The settlement covered around 1,400 claims, or 60 per cent of the cases, registered against the car marker. Mr Cooper has not yet commented on the decision. Sources: The National Law Journal; Wall Street Journal; New York Times