BIGLAW FIRM SANCTIONED $1MM BY COURT!!!– And NOBODY Is Covering It But Me

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One million dollars.

That’s the amount of sanctions a court ordered #biglaw firm Cozen O’Connor–a firm with over 900 lawyers that does a TON of insurance work– to pay after its partners apparently failed to disclose the existence of large insurance policies in a litigation matter.

The order is here: Sanctions Order

This is an INCREDIBLY high sanction amount demonstrative of the court’s CLEAR belief the #biglaw firm completely failed to do its job in the case.

This is one of the highest sanctions awards ever entered by a court– this is absolutely nuts and ABSOLUTELY newsworthy.

But NOBODY is covering this story.

The case is Jok v. Safelite Fulfillment in Superior Court in Washington County of Pierce, Case no. 20-2-08257.

Cozen was representing Safelite and should have disclosed two insurance policies totaling $50MM in coverage way back in 2022. But they didn’t.

Instead the case proceeded all the way to trial before the firm woke up and advised opposing counsel of a $25MM (half what they should have disclosed) the Friday before the start of trial.

INSANE mistake and completely unlawful.

Well the Court was absolutely furious with the firm and ordered an unprecedented $1MM sanction — I have never heard of a sanction award that high and the Court felt the sanction had to be that high to assure the message got through:

The “sanctions needs to be severe enough to prevent this kind of conduct in the future.”

Eesh.

So huge mistake by #biglaw– they also LOST the trial BTW (no surprise)– but as the saying goes, hire #biglaw and expect a big loss.

But what I find SHOCKING is that none of the legal rags covered this story at all. Where you at Law360? Law.com? Above the Law?

Apparently covering for a #biglaw firm.

Crazy that the ONLY place people can get real stories about the legal industry these days is on my blog.

No wonder TCPAWorld is one of the best read and trusted legal resources in America– and we’re just supposed to be a TCPA blog hahahahha.

Anyway, the legal press failed as badly as #biglaw on this one as far as I’m concerned.

But the Czar will never fail you.

(BTW– I reached out to the Cozen partners involved in the case. They didn’t respond, which is fine.)

Chat soon.

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Published by Eric "Czar" Troutman

The Czar of TCPAWorld Eric Troutman is one of the country’s prominent class action defense lawyers and is nationally recognized in Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) litigation and compliance. He has served as lead defense counsel in more than 70 national TCPA class actions and has litigated nearly a thousand individual TCPA cases in his role as national strategic litigation counsel for major banks and finance companies. He also helps industry participants build TCPA-compliant processes, policies, and systems. Eric has built a national litigation practice based upon deep experience, rigorous analysis and extraordinary responsiveness. Eric and his team feel equally at home litigating multibillion dollar telecommunications class actions in federal court as they do developing and executing national litigation strategies for institutions facing an onslaught of individual TCPA matters. They thrive in each of these roles – delivering consistently excellent results – while never losing sight of the client experience. While many firms now tout TCPA expertise, Eric has been there from the beginning. He built one of the country’s first TCPA-only defense teams and began serving as national TCPA counsel for his clients nearly a decade ago. This perspective allows him to swiftly develop the right litigation strategies for dealing with recurring problems, without wasting time on tactics that are bound to fail. Eric’s rich historical perspective and encyclopedic knowledge of the TCPA landscape also make him an invaluable resource to institutional compliance teams struggling to comply with the shifting regulatory landscape. No task is too small – or too big. Indeed, Eric and his team have helped build TCPA-compliant systems and processes for some of the largest and most complex corporate entities in the country. He commonly works with in-house compliance counsel to build and implement enterprise and business-line specific TCPA solutions, performs TCPA audits and drafts and reviews proposed TCPA policies and procedures. He and his team also have the technical expertise necessary to assist call centers seeking to develop TCPA-resistant call path architecture or to modify existing telephony and software integration to better insulate from potential TCPA exposure. Eric has built a reputation for thought leadership. An avid blogger and speaker, he has been at the forefront of the industry’s effort to push for clarity and a return to sanity for the TCPA for years. He was selected to advocate for the financial services industry on important TCPA issues before the Federal Communications Commission and co-authored the nation’s only comprehensive practice guide on TCPA defense. In his spare time, Eric leads defense teams representing banks and other financial services companies in consumer finance litigation matters. He has experience representing clients in UCC, TILA, RESPA FCRA, CCRA, CLRA, FDCPA, RFDCPA and FCCPA claims, as well as in fraud and bank operations issues.

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