We have worked on hundreds of insurance cases, including bad faith and coverage matters. We work with some of the largest carriers in the country to conduct jury research in venues nationwide, and use creative, well-tested methods to uncover jurors’ key attitudes and common expectations from insurance companies.
Our team works with clients to develop the optimal way to inform jurors that the insurance carrier acted in the best interests of its insureds. We also help clients educate jurors on claim handling procedures in ways that jurors can understand. Furthermore, we teach clients how to communicate coverage decline without leading jurors to believe that insurance companies are more interested in saving money than in paying claims. In bad faith cases, we focus on assessing jurors’ level of anger toward the carriers, and find ways to abate that anger to avoid punitive damages.
We frequently work with insurance claims handlers and company representatives prior to deposition and trial. Jurors carefully scrutinize insurance company witnesses and it is important to humanize the company through those witnesses. If there is anything a witness can effectively teach about a company, that often gives them credibility.
Going into trial, we design juror questionnaires that elicit anti-insurance company attitudes. We then utilize questionnaire data and jury research results to identify juror strikes and cause challenges during jury selection.
Representative Insurance Matters:
• A statewide class action for an insurance carrier involving claims they violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act when they failed to provide customers the required notice for increasing premiums.
• A coverage suit filed by a hospital. The dispute focused on whether water damage, due to heavy rains and water intrusion during roof repairs, were covered under a new-construction policy obtained for work to a different section of the hospital.
• A coverage dispute between a brine mining company and insurance carrier involving an environmental coverage policy for settlements paid to a group of landowners who were leasing the property to the mining company.
• A coverage dispute filed by a manufacturer of insulation products, for reimbursement of fees paid out on claims for asbestos-related injuries.
• A lawsuit by a general contractor when their insurance carrier denied coverage for construction defect litigation.
• A medical device manufacturer suing their insurance company for reimbursement of settlement fees paid over product liability claims.
• A financial corporation suing their insurance company for failing to pay settlements and defense costs in two lawsuits stemming from debt obligations sold to customers that were allegedly unsuitable for their portfolios.
• A complaint for breach of contract and bad faith resulting from a business interruption claim following Hurricane Katrina.
• A coverage suit filed by a hospital, for flooding and water damage sustained from Hurricane Sandy. The policy only provided for hurricane damage. However, the storm had been downgraded to a tropical storm by the time it hit land, and caused the damage at issue.
• A bad faith dispute for a major carrier for alleged mishandling of claims for hurricane-related damage to malls in Texas.
• A coverage and bad faith dispute for a major carrier with allegations a deductible was misapplied in a claim for hurricane-related damage.
• The re-trial of a complex insurance case, in which the first trial was lost, stemming from the Northridge earthquake in Southern California
• Claims for coverage and business losses at several pizza outlets in Los Angeles during the Rodney King Riots.