John A. O'Hara

Partner

Successfully defended a builder in a large attached housing construction defect case in Los Angeles where the association was claiming over $100 million in damages.  A substantial portion of the alleged damages were arguably not covered by the insurance policies and subjected the builder to a large out of pocket verdict.  Through careful selection and deployment of expert witnesses, and strategic discovery, we were able to persuade the association to drop its demand by almost five times while simultaneously persuading a tower of insurers to pay tens of millions of dollars in settlement. The builder paid nothing out of pocket.

Prevailed in multi-week jury trial representing a franchise operator being sued by a large international corporation.  We were able convince the jury that the corporation’s true motive for the suit was to trump up technical arguments for wrongful termination of the franchise agreement so that the corporation could take over the profits that the franchise operator had developed.  In the end, the jury completely rejected the corporation’s claim and awarded our client all of its almost $600,000 in attorneys’ fees.

Won a significant arbitration award against an insurer who wrongfully denied coverage to the owner of a large seaside mansion that burned down while being leased.  The insurer attempted to defeat coverage by arguing that commercial use of the home by the tenant triggered a commercial use exclusion.  We were able to show that the owner had no knowledge of the alleged commercial use and that the fire originated from a covered event.

We represented a large public company client in dozens of lawsuits initiated by a mammoth insurance company attempting to intimidate the client into walking away from significant insurance policy benefits. We were able to turn the tide on the insurance company by weaving together from the evidence a compelling story of a pattern and practice of bad faith claims handling conduct. Once the insurer realized that we were going to tell a compelling punitive damage story at trial, a favorable settlement was quickly reached.

Insurance companies never volunteer policy benefits or search for coverage.  Instead, they write insurance policies that are confusing and obtuse and sit back and wait to see if the policyholder is willing to chase the benefits.  In order to maximize recovery of policy benefits, the policyholder needs to understand the policy terms, determine the full range of benefits to which it is entitled, make the claim, support the claim, argue the claim and effectively litigate the claim if necessary.  I have represented multiple clients in maximizing the insurance coverage to which they are entitled and recovered tens of millions of dollars that the clients never expected.

Defended dozens of contentious lawsuits by a major insurance carrier seeking to shirk its obligation to defend its insured and/or to seek reimbursement for policy benefits already paid.  These actions ended favorably to the insured.