General Motors

James Milstead, Arthur Ray and Richard Vargas v. General Motors LLC
United States District Court, Northern District of California
Case No. 4:21-cv-06338

A client of the Birka-White Law Offices (“BWLO”) had a frontal accident traveling at approximately 50 mph and the airbag in his GM pickup truck failed to deploy. BWLO investigated the GM airbag system and conferred with nationally recognized airbag experts. Based upon the evidence gathered from this investigation, BWLO partnered with law firms throughout the United States and on August 17, 2021 filed the class action lawsuit Milstead v. General Motors in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The case involves claims against General Motors related to alleged defects in airbag control units, specifically within the sensing and diagnostic modules, in certain GM trucks and SUVs from model years 1999-2018. The lawsuit alleges that the software controlling these modules is prematurely cutting off the time window for airbag deployment in crashes, endangering occupants.

The core issue is whether the programming of the airbag control units constitutes a defect that puts drivers’ lives at risk, and if GM was aware of this potential problem but concealed it. The case is ongoing. (A full copy of the Third Amended Complaint is available here.)