General Motors has hired a top lawyer, Kenneth Feinberg, to oversee the payout of damages to relatives of 13 victims killed in a series of accidents blamed on problems with GM vehicles.

Feinberg is highly qualified and very experienced on this issue, GM chief executive Mary Barra told lawmakers on Tuesday at a hearing in the US Congress. More deaths could be uncovered during the investigation of the accidents blamed on a faulty ignition mechanism in nearly 3 million GM vehicles.

Feinberg’s experience includes oversight of the Government’s damage payments to families of victims of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He also was in charge of damages paid out following the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 and the Boston Marathon terrorist attacks in 2013.

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