March 19, 2015—Bob Hilliard, the Texas-based attorney appointed to lead the personal injury litigation against General Motors in regard to faulty ignition switches recalled last year, announced Friday that the depositions of key current and former GM employees, including GM CEO Mary Barra, will begin in May.
Other high level executives are also expected to be deposed over a stretch of several months, including Alicia Boler-Davis, senior vice president for customer experience; David Cary, engineering director; and Maureen Foley-Gardner, director of field performance evaluation.
Barra has come under fire in recent days after internal GM documents surfaced, indicating that high-level executives at GM not only knew about the 2.6 million defective ignition switches linked to at least 67 deaths and countless accidents, but also took steps to conceal them from the public. According to Hilliard, "This will be the first time GM employees will be made to answer difficult questions under oath about the specific details of the documents and their role in these deaths and injuries."
Hilliard said he is prepared to ask the difficult questions in an effort to find out exactly what role high-level executives at GM actually played in the likely cover-up.
"Ms. Barra and other GM employees will face tough questions, subject to perjury. If they dodge or crawfish in their answers then they will face the consequences," said Hilliard. Yet, he added that, should GM's lawyer's instruct their witnesses to not answer questions and plead the 5th amendment, then we may never know the full breadth of this cover-up.
