Insurance Law

Hamp Skelton and Patrick Mehaffy, working with exceptional local counsel Armando De Diego, successfully defended State Farm in a week-long jury trial in late January 2023. The suit arose from a tornado that damaged the plaintiffs' home, leading to a payment the plaintiffs claimed was inadequate, and a lawsuit alleging bad faith. The case was tried in federal court in the Eastern District of Texas. The court submitted jury questions on breach of the policy, breach of the duty of good faith, deceptive trade practices and punitive damages. The plaintiffs asked for "$25 million to $250 million" in punitive damages in the closing argument. The jury returned a verdict that State Farm did not breach the policy, commit bad faith or a deceptive act. The Court issued a judgment for our client.

Hamp Skelton and Eddie Kaye, along with co-counsel Bryan Forman, scored a significant victory in a one-week arbitration held in January 2019. Our client, a seven-figures investor in a privately held company pursued Texas Security Act claims against the promoters who sold him the shares based on false and misleading information in an offering memorandum and pitch deck. Following hard-fought discovery battles, several rounds of briefs and a week-long final hearing, the arbitrator ruled for our client and awarded him his money back, plus interest and significant attorneys fees. The award made the investor whole.