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The Texas Supreme Court recently heard oral arguments in a workers’ compensation bad faith claim, in which the plaintiff was represented by Doyle Dennis Avery LLP at the trial level, and on appeal by Alan Daughtry.  The plaintiff, Jerome Wagner, sued his workers’ compensation insurer, XL Specialty, after he was injured on the job and XL Specialty denied his claim, forcing him to unneceesarily proceed through the administrative process.

The matter was appealed to address a dispute in discovery about whether the attorney-client privilege attaches to communications between an insurer, its attorney, and the employer that purchased the workers’ compensation policy, while the claim is pending at the administrative level.  XL Specialty’s attorney had prepared materials and sent them to the employer–who was not XL Specialty’s client.

Mr. Daughtry prepared Mr. Wagner’s briefing on appeal and argued the case before the Texas Supreme Court.  The case was recently profiled in the Texas Lawyer Magazine.

On May 10, 2011, the Court of Appeals for the Thirteenth District of Texas affirmed the judgment of the trial court that the surviving family of an employee who was injured at his workplace was entitled to death benefits under Texas law.

Following an on-the-job injury, the employee had died of an accidental overdose of pain medication related to his injuries.  Despite the established law that such a death qualified for death benefits under Texas law, the insurer continued to fight the employee’s family’s entitlement to death benefits through trial and on appeal.

Doyle successfully represented the employee’s family in the underlying case and on appeal.

Doyle’s Phoenix office has moved to a new location. The new office is located at: 2633 East Indian School Road, Suite 320
Phoenix, AZ  85016.

The Phoenix office focuses on property insurance, personal injury, workers’ comp bad faith and insurance bad faith. In response to the rising problem of insurance bad faith activity in Phoenix and across Arizona, Doyle has opened a Phoenix office in order to assist residents of Arizona who have been affected by insurance misconduct.

Local 2 (KPRC-TV) interviewed attorney Mike Doyle of Doyle Dennis Avery LLP about the oil spill that occurred on Monday, March 24, 2014. in the Port of Houston.

According to the report, the accident happened when the Miss Susan, a tow vessel, collided with a barge that was carrying 924,000 gallons of fuel oil. The Miss Susan was moving from Texas City to the Bolivar peninsula when the collision occurred. The US Coast Guard believes that at least 160,000 gallons of the fuel oil spilled into the Houston Ship Channel. The six crewmembers aboard the Miss Susan have been accounted for, though two were sent to the hospital for hydrogen sulfide exposure.