GM victims' fund to have 'modest' window for claims

DETROIT (Bloomberg) -- Kenneth Feinberg, who is managing General Motors’ fund to compensate victims of ignition flaws linked to at least 13 deaths, said there will be a modest window for filing applications after it starts accepting claims around Aug. 1.

“This program can’t go on forever,” Feinberg told Bloomberg Television today. “If we start by Aug. 1, we want to have a relatively modest timetable to invite claimants to file their claims.”

The program that will determine who is eligible to file a claim will be established by the end of this month, he said.

Feinberg, the lawyer who ran similar funds for victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the 2010 BP Plc oil spill, was hired by GM to review compensation for victims following GM’s recall of 2.59 million small cars starting in February. The automaker is facing investigations from Congress and the U.S. Justice Department into why it took more than a decade to call back the cars and last week released its own internal investigation into the matter, which saw 15 people dismissed from the company.

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