GM Prepares for Bankruptcy Announcement

It could also help the automaker get through the court process more quickly, said Robert Gordon, head of the corporate restructuring and bankruptcy group at Clark Hill PLC in Detroit.

"The more consensus you have, the more likely it is you'll be able to move through the bankruptcy process in an expeditious fashion with less resistance," Gordon said.

The company made a huge stride toward restructuring Friday when the United Auto Workers union agreed to a cost-cutting deal.

GM's fate and the federal government's intervention was the topic on several Sunday morning talk shows.

"I think the government auto bailout was a big mistake," said Sen. Mitch McConnell (R.,Ky.) on CNN's "State of the Union" program.

He said the companies could have been allowed to go into the bankruptcy process much earlier, without providing additional government money, "and ended up in the same place."

In a typical Chapter 11 bankruptcy case, the company files a plan of reorganization that must be voted on by creditors. In each class of creditors, the plan would have to be approved by holders of two-thirds of the claims and a majority of the number of individual creditors who vote.

But the GM case is anything but ordinary, and it appears the company will sell some or all of its assets to a new entity that would become the new GM, rather than submit a plan to reorganize the old company.

Under a so-called Section 363 sale, the prospective buyer and seller present a fully negotiated asset purchase agreement for approval by the court.