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Podcasts Take Two
How Kenneth Feinberg will decide what GM switch victims' lives are worth
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Jul 2, 2014
Listen • 9:37
How Kenneth Feinberg will decide what GM switch victims' lives are worth
Kenneth Feinberg has become the guy to determine who gets what after a tragedy or accident. GM has employed him to hand out the millions of dollars for people affected by its cars with defective ignition switches.
FILE - In this Thursday, Jan. 10, 2013 file photo, the logo for General Motors decorates the entrance at the site of a GM information technology center in Roswell, Ga. A congressional committee is investigating the way General Motors and a federal safety agency handled a deadly ignition switch problem in compact cars. House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton of Michigan says the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration received a large number of complaints about the problem during the past decade. But GM didn’t recall the 1.6 million cars worldwide until last month. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)
The logo for General Motors decorates the entrance at the site of a GM information technology center in Roswell, Ga.
(
David Goldman/AP
)

Kenneth Feinberg has become the guy to determine who gets what after a tragedy or accident. GM has employed him to hand out the millions of dollars for people affected by its cars with defective ignition switches.

Earlier this week, GM announced its plan to compensate the injured and families of those killed in accidents linked to Chevrolet Cobalts with defective ignition switches. 

About 150,000 of those recalled vehicles were registered in California, and in some cases payouts could reach up to several million dollars per victim. But how do you put a price tag on pain and suffering, or a life lost due to a company's mistake?

In GM's case, the company turned to attorney Kenneth Feinberg. In the past, Feinberg also managed compensation funds for the victims of 9/11, the BP Gulf oil spill, and the Boston Marathon bombing.

He joins Take Two's Alex Cohen to explain how he's become the guy to determine who gets what after a tragedy or accident.