Dec Actions & First-Party
Insurance Defense

From San Antonio to Laredo and all the way down south to the Rio Grande Valley, our South Texas lawyers specialize in helping insurance companies reach reasonable settlements with their insureds. This includes car and commercial motor vehicle accidents, and of course bad faith claims. Our RGV trial lawyers have a long history of defending insurance companies from lawsuits. Our South Texas team does not shy away from trying first-party cases against insurance companies in the Rio Grande Valley. In fact, Memo tried and won the first Declaratory Judgment action (“Dec action”) that went to trial without a settlement agreement in place in Cameron County, Texas, following the Texas Supreme Court's Allstate v. Irwin opinion in 2021.​ Our South Texas defense lawyers continue to defend these cases at trial.

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The Texas Supreme Court’s Irwin opinion led to the drastic and rapid proliferation of car accident litigation in Texas. Much like previous storm and mold cases, the Texas Supreme Court created a monster of a problem when they offered plaintiff’s lawyers the opportunity to recover exorbitant attorney’s fees following simple car accident cases. Now it is not uncommon to find cases where plaintiffs recover a small fraction of money in a car accident, only to have their attorneys recover tens of thousands of dollars in inflated attorney’s fees. Unless the Texas Legislature steps up and eliminates this loophole, insurers can continue to expect the onslaught of Dec actions in the Rio Grande Valley and South Texas. Texas consumers can continue to see the increases in their insurance premiums as insurers grapple with the explosion of Dec action and first-party litigation. If, however, you need experienced, bold trial lawyers to help in these types of cases, call our team of RGV civil defense lawyers.