How defective products lead to wrongful death

• Design defects: The blueprint or intended design created an unsafe condition.
• Manufacturing defects: The product was built incorrectly and did not match the intended design.
• Warning/labeling defects: The product failed to include instructions or warnings about hidden dangers.

Oklahoma’s liability standard

Strengthening a wrongful death claim

The Ruling

Our Firm's Response

What the Documents Show

1. It started as a "biggest bucket of opportunity." Internally, State Farm identified full roof replacements as the single largest area where it could cut costs. One executive, Nicole Manduca, wrote plainly that this "biggest bucket" meant savings on what the company pays out to policyholders. (Ex. 3-4). A 2020 planning document put a number on it: roof claims made up 57% of what State Farm was paying out — making it the company's top target. (Ex. 5).
2. They built a "playbook" and rolled it out nationwide. Starting with a "kickoff" in Dallas County, Texas in June 2020, the "tactics" expanded to all of Texas by December, then to every state by the end of that year. (Ex. 30). The documents lay out the specific tools used to get adjusters to approve fewer full roof replacements and more "repairs" instead:
   • A "Roof Skills Review" and mandatory refresher training
   • A training module called "Art of the Conversation" — essentially, a script to help adjusters and agents deliver bad news to customers without changing the actual insurance policy
   • "Haag Refresher"
   • Extra manager sign-off required before a roof replacement could be approved — but not before a claim was denied or downgraded to a repair
   • Weekly tracking of how often roof-replacement decisions were being "overturned" to repairs instead
   • A dedicated internal team — the "Hail Reconciliation Unit" — whose job was to review and reverse roof-replacement recommendations
   Ex. 30. The duty of good faith and fair dealing requires that insurance companies cannot employ tactics to arbitrarily reduce coverage, yet State Farm engaged in these tactics regardless.
3. They measured it like a sales campaign. Executives discussed "how we'll know the tactics are working" and tracked the ratio of full roof replacements to partial repairs. (Ex. 2). According to the documents, that ratio was cut by more than half after the rollout. (Ex. 6). One executive, Tom Moss, did the math out loud in an email: each percentage-point drop in approvals was worth roughly $78.8 million a year, based on an average savings of about $15,769 per denied or downgraded claim. (Ex. 7).
4. They bragged about the results. An internal email credits the roof tactics with a $1.4 billion drop in claims payouts in just the first year. (Ex. 6). One executive described a new internal tracking dashboard as a "silver platter" handed to the team running the program. (Ex. 8).
5. There was assistance from outside consulting to make the numbers look legitimate. State Farm hired Accenture to help develop industry benchmarks suggesting insurers overpay on wind and hail claims — benchmarks built to justify the internal cost-cutting rather than to reflect independent, objective standards. (Ex. 10, Ex. 30).
6. State Farm worked with Haag to use a hidden definition of damage, which is missing from State Farm's policy. Haag wrote a white paper in 2006, which defined functional damage as: “Functional damage to any roofing is defined as diminution in its water-shedding capability or reduction in the expected long-term service life of the material.” State Farm's operational guidelines, on Section C, Composition Roofs, State Farm trains its adjusters that "damage occurs to roof coverings when water shedding ability or the life expectancy of the material is reduced." (Ex. 26). That is the same definition provided by Haag, but is completely missing from State Farm's policies. Exhibit 27 shows that State Farm required all of its claim handlers and team managers must watch at least 2 hours each year and new claim handlers must have 5.5 hours of Haag training videos.
7. State Farm's own agents were sounding the alarm the whole time. Hundreds of agents complained because they witnessed firsthand how wind and hail claim handling changed drastically but the policy did not change at all. A State Farm agent, Tracy Haus, emailed company leadership directly, including the CEO and CFO, warning that the company's reputation was collapsing because of how roof claims were being handled. (Ex. 17). She wrote that customers were being lowballed, that adjusters were being pushed to write repair estimates instead of replacements even when replacement was clearly warranted, and that even competitors known for bad claims service — like Allstate — now had a better reputation than State Farm in some markets. Other internal documents describe agents as "distrustful" of the company and note a "larger than normal number of complaints." (Ex.'s 18, 19, 20, 21). Leadership's response, per the documents, was to keep running the same tactics causing agents, contractors and insureds complaints. (Ex.'s 6, 13, 14). State Farm engaged in training the agents to have harder conversations with the "Art of the Conversation," which helped agents have "tougher conversations" when "we are unable to extend coverage or only partial coverage." (Ex. 9). State Farm even had an Oklahoma call with all the captive agents to discuss wind and hail coverage in 2020. (Ex. 24).
8. There was even a repurposed "Fix Profit Task Force" discussing claims. Internal emails show a group originally focused on profit strategy was repurposed to meet weekly specifically to discuss claims-handling numbers — a detail that undercuts the industry's usual defense that claims departments are walled off from profit pressure. (Ex. 14).

Why this matters (the "so what")

"Internal State Farm documents, unsealed for the first time in a court case, show company leadership built and tracked a nationwide program to reduce roof-damage payouts — bragging in 2021 about saving $1.4 billion in a single year — even as its own agents warned executives the company's reputation with customers was collapsing." – Senior Partner, Reggie Whitten

Why This Matters

• The truck's speed in the moments before impact
• Brake application and driver response time
• Engine throttle activity and whether the truck had mechanical issues
• Hours of service showing if the driver exceeded legal driving limits
• GPS location and route history

Do all trucks have black boxes?

Is the truck crash data stored indefinitely?

The sooner you act, the stronger your case

Causes of vehicle fires and explosions

• Fuel system leaks can ignite when gasoline contacts hot engine components.
• Electrical failures may spark fires inside the engine compartment or cabin.
• Battery damage in electric vehicles can trigger thermal runaway and intense heat.
• High impact collisions may rupture tanks or lines that release flammable vapors.

Types of catastrophic burn injuries

• Thermal burns when flames or hot surfaces contact the skin.
• Chemical burns from exposure to hazardous substances released during a crash.
• Inhalation injuries when smoke or toxic fumes damage the airway and lungs.
• Electrical burns when damaged wiring sends current through the body.

What causes deceleration injuries?

Recognizing when a case exceeds the firm's usual scope

Measuring the staffing, expert and financial demands ahead

Choosing co-counsel instead of a complete referral

Defining roles, fees and client consent in writing

Protecting the case through an early collaboration decision

Build strong guardrails before trouble starts

• Review your contracts, labels, warranties and marketing materials to help ensure customers are not misled.
• Keep written policies for employee conduct, safety, refunds, data privacy and complaint handling.
• Train your team so everyone understands how to follow the rules in daily work.
• Document inspections, customer reports, repairs, recalls, internal reviews and corrective actions.
• Watch for patterns in complaints, online reviews, returns or injury reports.
• Respond quickly when a problem affects more than one person.
• Avoid deleting emails, records or messages once a serious issue appears.
• Use audits to verify that your business practices comply with current laws and industry standards. 

Be mindful of legal deadlines

Make the right call