Kenneth Feinberg has approved 42 claims for death benefits from the GM victims compensation fund.

While General Motors’ executives continue to speak confidently of having put the ignition switch recall in the rear-view mirror, casualty claims related to the defective vehicles continue to climb.

Four more deaths have been linked to the ignition defect, raising the total to 42 fatalities, according to a report Monday from the attorney running the compensation fund for victims of crashes attributed to the faulty ignition.

GM has received a total of 2,326 claims — 251 for deaths, 156 for catastrophic injuries and 1,919 for less-serious injuries that required hospitalization — according to the latest report from Kenneth Feinberg, the New York super lawyer, who was selected by GM to administer the claims settlements.

To obtain the a settlement from the fund administered by Feinberg, the injured drivers or passengers have to sign away their right to sue GM for damages in federal or state court.

The numbers involved in the Feinberg-administered settlement underscore the scope of the legal challenges facing GM, which is also facing lawsuits from by the attorney generals from more than 40 states highlighted by a lawsuit by the attorney general for the state of Arizona which is claiming damages in the billions of dollars.

(Deadline extended for GM ignition recall claims. For more, Click Here.)

GM is also potentially facing federal charges and one of its former Ray DeGiorgio, who has been fired, could be charged with a crime for covering up the problems with the faulty switch, which can move from “on” to the “off” position, killing the engine and shutting down the power assisted steering, brakes and air bags.

(Click Here for details about the reborn Acura NSA debuting in Detroit.)

More than half of the 2.59 million small cars built by GM in the early part of the century with faulty ignitions switches have been repaired, which is good figure considering, on average across the industry, only about one of every four recalled vehicles are actually brought in for repair.

(To see how NHTSA plans to force Takata and others to expand the current airbag nationally, Click Here.)

Last month, GM began offering owners for the vehicles a $25 gift card if they brought the vehicle in for repair. The offer was set to expire in December, but has now been extended to Jan. 31, 2015, to ensure everyone who wants to file a claim can do so.