Class Action Defense
Lawyers in all our offices have represented insurers such as Prudential, Allstate Insurance Company, Royal & SunAlliance, Metropolitan Property and Casualty Company and Farmers Insurance Group in numerous complex class actions raising a variety of different issues. This is in keeping with our firm's history of class action expertise in many areas.
Our lawyers were instrumental in negotiating a global settlement of the nationwide, multi-district class action claims against Prudential. Sonnenschein negotiated initially with the Multistate Task Force, a group representing insurance regulators from more than thirty-five states, and subsequently with a group of the principal class action plaintiffs' firms in the country. Currently, the settlement with plaintiffs is pending court approval.
The settlement sets up a unique alternative dispute resolution process designed to ensure that each policyholder who was harmed in the purchase of a Prudential policy can obtain appropriate remediation from the company. The settlement was joined by a record 99.8 percent of the class members.
We continue to litigate individual lawsuits by policyholders not covered by the nationwide class action settlement, and former agents and employees of Prudential. In the process, Sonnenschein has developed an expertise in the burgeoning fields of NASD arbitration and U-5 defamation, as highlighted by its victorious representation of Prudential in a four-month-long NASD arbitration in Tampa, Florida and our arbitrators for All-American Financial.
