$100M Verdict Club

  • Law
  • Charges against Doug Crawford dropped in exchange for him consenting to be disbarred. [RJ, 8NewsNow]
  • Madilyn Cole drops “Leavitt” as she seeks judicial appointment. [Nevada Current]
  • Opinion: Nevada’s boards and commission are receiving some much needed sunlight. [TNI]
  • Trump likely won’t be able to change Nevada’s federal judiciary makeup. Here’s why. [TNI]
  • Here’s why Las Vegas settlement of Badlands dispute no longer needs vote. [RJ]
  • Charles Kellar, the first Black man to pass Nevada bar exam helped integrate Las Vegas despite bullets, explosion. [RJ]
  • Clark County sets new rules for animal welfare. [8NewsNow]
  • Detectives pursue new trial after $34 million verdict. [8NewsNow]
  • Congrats to Kimball Jones: USAA hit with $100M punitive bad faith verdict over delay in paying zero-fault insured’s claims. [CVN]

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Anonymous
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Anonymous
February 5, 2025 10:06 am

This is Kimball’s third $100mm plus verdict in a year! Incredible trial lawyer!

Anonymous
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Anonymous
February 5, 2025 12:33 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

Well lets be fair…. The other two were walkovers where no money will be paid.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
February 5, 2025 12:56 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

Interesting. How so? (Sincere question)

Anonymous
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Anonymous
February 5, 2025 1:22 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

Because judgment proof defendants pay no judgments.

anonymous
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anonymous
February 5, 2025 2:59 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

One of those is against Progressive Insurance, which might be many things but judgment proof is not one of them. The other one involves a Fred Loya insured who might be able to assign his rights, but he is doing a lengthy prison sentence so he may not feel any incentive to do that. So I think you might be correct on one of the cases but definitely not on the other.

Anonymous
Guest
Anonymous
February 5, 2025 4:06 pm
Reply to  anonymous

The case against Progressive is subject to reduction, though, on the punitive damages award as it grossly exceeded the SF v. Campbell figure. Whether there are other bases for appeal is a different question, but that one issue should be the subject of a motion for remittitur anyway so as to maybe cut off an appeal if that is the only issue that was legitimately likely to result in reversal.

anonymous
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anonymous
February 5, 2025 1:22 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

I wouldn’t be so sure. On the wrongful death case against the drunk, you might be right. The other one where the guy was run down in a crosswalk or whatever is likely to result in a substantial payout.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
February 15, 2025 2:52 pm
Reply to  anonymous

The wrongful death case was a popped policy case. At-fault driver has already sued USAA.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
February 15, 2025 3:03 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

The Progressive case was against Keating I believe and the DUI case was against Ranalli.

anonymous
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anonymous
February 5, 2025 10:21 am

It was pretty obvious that USAA should have paid the claim instead of making such a lowball offer. Uber and the insurance companies want to complain about “billboard lawyers” when maybe what they need is a little bit of introspection. Perhaps paying out $100 million (plus interest, costs, and likely some fees) on a case they could have disposed of for $250k will bring that about, but I won’t be holding my breath. If you want to complain about insurance rates going sky high, you can start with the claim handlers on files like this one. Sincerely, Not Kimball Jones.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
February 5, 2025 10:45 am
Reply to  anonymous

I think it’s even worse that it’s a first party bad faith case. Dude wasn’t even at fault and had to sue his OWN insurance company to pay what they obviously should have paid at the beginning.

Anonymous
Guest
Anonymous
February 5, 2025 10:58 am
Reply to  Anonymous

If you read the transcript, apparently USAA offered 10k on like 65k in provable actual medicals. And then, on the eve of trial, they finally pay policy limits but they still hang fees and costs over plaintiff’s head, which was what pissed off the jury. Mid-trial, USAA waives any claim for fees and costs, but the damage was done. Zero fault plaintiff, 5 year delay in payout – USAA was asking for a runaway bad faith verdict. Sincerely, guy who used to do some coverage and bad faith defense and now does something completely different (not PI).

Last edited 11 days ago by Anonymous
Anonymous
Guest
Anonymous
February 5, 2025 11:05 am
Reply to  anonymous

When insurance companies realize that their “defense firms” have no incentive to resolve the matter and every incentive to prolong the litigation to accumulate firm mandated billable hours, which results in huge bad faith verdicts when they lose, maybe they will change their business model and actually distribute what the policyholders paid for.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
February 5, 2025 12:08 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

Is anything appealable in that case?

Anonymous
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Anonymous
February 5, 2025 1:09 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

If you’re Kimball, you go straight to Henriod or Echols to defend that on appeal.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
February 5, 2025 1:15 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

A case with this much in requested damages probably had appellate counsel in the audience for the entire trial (on both sides).

Anonymous
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Anonymous
February 5, 2025 1:54 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

I’m willing to bet a can of diet coke that we see Deepak Gupta make an appearance for the appeal. Henriod and Echols would do just as well but, for some reason, the Plaintiff’s bar is starting to think like corporate defendants – ie, the further away the lawyer is from, the better he must be…

Anonymous
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Anonymous
February 5, 2025 5:44 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

Gupta was brought in to handle a specific issue that he deals with across the nation. Granted he mopped the floor with Uber, but this is not his cup of tea

Anonymous
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Anonymous
February 5, 2025 1:57 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

Echols, every time.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
February 5, 2025 1:18 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

Bu reading your comment, I billed .2

Anonymous
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Anonymous
February 7, 2025 8:42 am
Reply to  Anonymous

I do bad faith (on the defense) and have been taking a tact to get them to ADR sooner rather than later 90% of the time. These cases do NOT generally age well for the insurance company. Even if there are reasonable questions, the optics of holding off the money for 5 years until trial almost always overcome whatever good reason you had.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
February 7, 2025 11:18 am
Reply to  Anonymous

I’m defense, I have no incentive to prolong any matter. There are too many cases and not enough attorneys. As soon as one case settles, there are three more that are dopped into my lap. I beg plaintiffs to settle up front and they won’t even give me a number.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
February 6, 2025 12:58 am
Reply to  anonymous

So the case was mishandled but seriously a 100 million. It will settle for a lot less.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
February 7, 2025 9:22 am
Reply to  Anonymous

Not just “mishandled”. They violated the Unfair Claims Practices Act and every applicable standard for a 1P claim. In legal parlance they “screwed the pooch”.

Anon Omuss
Guest
Anon Omuss
February 9, 2025 2:18 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

Indeed. The question now is who in the company will pay the price. The magnitude of this catastrophe demands that some heads roll, metaphorically speaking.

Anon Omuss
Guest
Anon Omuss
February 9, 2025 2:01 pm
Reply to  anonymous

I wouldn’t blame a mere claims handler for this catastrophe for USAA. I suspect that a bad faith suit against an insurer is certainly going to be handled by a litigation adjuster for the enterprise, and not a regular litigation adjuster. It will likely be monitored closely by directors and executives. A decision to offer $250,000 is going to be beyond the authority of a mere claims handler or litgation adjuster. That kind of authority is going to come from an executive. So, I suspect that there is a mid-level or junior executive, such as a claims President, Vice-President, or Assitant Vice President ultimately made the decisions on this matter. The blame for this catastrophe lies with them. Now, how will the insurer pay this huge verdict. AFAIK, there is no cap on Punitive awards in Nevada for bad faith. Anyway, I think there is an executive, or executives, who need to lose their jobs. Post haste.

anonymous
Guest
anonymous
February 5, 2025 10:30 am

Sounds like a Hail Mary by Craig Anderson. Most of those issues probably an abuse of discretion standard. But, I suppose he is required to at least make the argument.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
February 5, 2025 5:14 pm
Reply to  anonymous

I don’t think the LDS hail Mary.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
February 5, 2025 9:48 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

seems like he would have to be honest in his dealings with fellow men? or did they remove that requirement?

Anonymous
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Anonymous
February 6, 2025 9:14 am
Reply to  Anonymous

Correct, they hail Marry.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
February 5, 2025 12:30 pm

The RJ “Doug Crawford” link goes to a Badlands story

Anonymous
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Anonymous
February 5, 2025 1:25 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

Both are bad so I understand the confusion.

Regarding Crawford’s conduct:
In a George Contanza voice: “Was that wrong? Should I have not done that?”

Quickdraw Mclaw
Admin
February 5, 2025 1:49 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

thanks. fixed it.

Anonymous
Guest
Anonymous
February 5, 2025 2:50 pm

omg the admin name….I died

Anonymous
Guest
Anonymous
February 5, 2025 3:04 pm

ISO good resource for individual health insurance plan. Just me, spouse, and 1 child. Need an individual plan. Have always been on a firm plan but going out on my own. Any good resources from those who have been down this road before?

Anonymous
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Anonymous
February 5, 2025 5:10 pm
Reply to  Anonymous
Anonymous
Guest
Anonymous
February 5, 2025 5:45 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

Clark county bar has special rates.

Anonymous
Guest
Anonymous
February 5, 2025 6:20 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

CCBA is awesome for many things. I should have joined a long time ago. Unlike the state bar, CCBA is out there doing things to really make the profession better.

Anonymous
Guest
Anonymous
February 5, 2025 8:18 pm

The City Council approved the appointment of Matthew Walker as an interim Municipal Court Judge for Department 1, to fill the vacancy of Municipal Court Chief Judge Cynthia S. Leung, who recently retired. The appointment will be in effect until the 2026 election cycle, when the seat will be up for election to fill the remainder of the term ending in 2028

Anonymous
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Anonymous
February 7, 2025 9:24 am
Reply to  Anonymous

Good. Matt was a very solid DCA and a good guy. He was the best choice of the three finalists IMHO.

Anonymous
Guest
Anonymous
February 7, 2025 11:16 am

As someone on the defense side: Congrats, Kimball. Watching USAA lose makes me happy. (I do not and will not ever represent USAA or take their claims, they are insane)

Anon Omuss
Guest
Anon Omuss
February 9, 2025 2:25 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

Given the stories that have made the news about the bank, consent orders, continuing violations, massive fines, judgements, etc, one does have to wonder what is going on with the Board of Directors that they have not cleaned out every executive to right the ship. They seem to be asleep at the helm. Maybe the money is really good.

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