We Have A Proven Record Of Handling Bad Faith Cases
For over 20 years, our firm has litigated and tried insurance cases that helped define and develop Oklahoma bad faith law. Handling exclusively bad faith cases, obviously, involves hundreds of cases over these decades.
Our firm won one of Oklahoma’s first bad faith jury verdicts over a million dollars from a Pottawatomie County jury in 1995 – in the very first bad faith jury trial that partners Steven Mansell and Mark Engel tried together as a team. That Shawnee, Oklahoma woman was denied an $18,000 claim and had her automobile repossessed. See, Threatt. In a similar case, an Oklahoma City federal jury awarded $800,000.00 on a $10,000 insurance claim. See, Vining. In that case, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals likened the evidence presented by our firm against the insurance company at trial to the fictitious insurance company in the award-winning movie “The Rainmaker.” The Vining case and its published opinion are one of the most cited Oklahoma bad faith cases. The case addresses many issues from evidence discovery to legal standards in bad faith litigation. Our firm achieved the largest bad faith verdict in the history of Oklahoma in 1998 when an Oklahoma City federal jury awarded $10,250,000.00. An elderly lady had been denied $7,000 in long-term care benefits and had to leave her nursing home. Our firm demonstrated at trial that the amendatory policy endorsement utilized to deny her claim had been sent to over 78,000 other long-term care policyholders. Some of our litigation has caused insurance companies to reopen and pay thousands of denied insurance claims and to change their claims practices.
Our bad faith cases for policyholders range from health insurance claims to their homeowner’s claims. We enforce insurance policies whether it is credit insurance, cancer policies, long-term care insurance, life insurance, disability insurance, commercial property insurance, commercial general liability insurance, etc. In some smaller claims, we won a $700,000 jury verdict on a $1,600 urology bill denial and a similar result at jury trial on a $2,000 vinyl siding claim. However, people’s businesses also pay premiums and we have won a number of million-dollar settlements and jury awards on behalf of businesses against their insurance companies. In fact, we obtained a million-dollar jury award on behalf of an insurance company president when his wife’s $18,000 health insurance claim was denied. He selected our firm based upon his experience when we had previously prosecuted a claim against his company. We have even represented insurance companies that were denied by their own insurance companies.
Our most recent verdict over a million dollars is still on appeal and the final opinion is not yet available for listing. That case involves a Guthrie business that had been sued by a former employee. The insurance company refused to defend the business and properly cover them under the company’s general liability insurance policy. Obviously, not all cases have a million-dollar value, but our firm is dedicated to maximizing your recovery.
Any referring lawyer who may be considering selecting our firm to co-counsel on your client’s insurance case can readily identify our cases on a Westlaw search. Please use Westlaw or OSCN.net to review our firm’s quality of work and briefing in our cases.
- $2,750,000 – Insurance company denied home health care benefits.
- $750,000 – Insurance company denied hail damage to commercial building.
- $850,000 – Insurance company denied tornado damage to home.
- $6,900,000 – Insurance company denied earthquake damage to a commercial building.
- $1,500,000 – Insurance company denied hail damage to commercial building.
- $6,500,000 – Insurance company denied nursing home insurance.
- $2,000,000 – Insurance company denied cancer treatment benefits.
- $2,200,000 – Insurance company denied hail damage to commercial building.
- $2,750,000 – Insurance company denied hail damage to commercial building.
- $2,000,000 – Insurance company denied uninsured motorist coverage.
- $4,000,000 – Health insurance company denied paying therapy claims.
- $700,000 – Liability insurer refused to defend and indemnify production company.
- $3,000,000 – Underinsured motorist benefits for man’s foot run over by trailer.
- $1,000,000 – Health insurance company underpaid hospital bills.
- $1,150,000 – Automobile credit insurance denied benefits.
- $4,600,000 – Liability insurer refused to defend and indemnify production company.
- $1,200,000 – Liability insurer refused to defend and indemnify a company.
- $1,600,000 – Insurance company denied Alzheimer’s care.
- $850,000 – Insurance company denied hail damage to commercial building.
- $1,000,000 – Insurance company denied cancer treatment benefits.