Lawyers Leading Fatal-Defect Case Against GM Must Go, Rival Says

By Margaret Cronin Fisk and Erik Larson, Bloomberg News

The lead attorneys in a large group of lawsuits brought against General Motors Co. for fatally flawed ignition switches have failed plaintiffs and should be removed, a rival lawyer who first revealed the flaw urged in a blistering court filing.

Lance Cooper called the collapse of the first trial, held in Manhattan last week, “an embarrassing retreat,’’ in a request Monday to U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman to remove co-lead counsels Robert Hilliard, Steve Berman and Elizabeth Cabraser.

The plaintiffs in that trial, an Oklahoma mail carrier and his wife, dropped ...