Martin, Disiere, Jefferson & Wisdom, L.L.P., Attorney company from Dallas, Texas

Attorney company Martin, Disiere, Jefferson & Wisdom, L.L.P.

Address:	900 Jackson Street Suite 710 Dallas, TX 75202
Phone:
Fax:
City:	Dallas
State:	Texas

Attorneys of this company

Areas of Practice for this Attorney company

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

Slip and Fall Accident

Business & Commercial Law

Employment Law (Employer)

Insurance Law

Personal Injury -- Defense

Government Agencies & Programs

Attorney Firm Profile

Introduction to Our Firm

MARTIN, DISIERE, JEFFERSON & WISDOM, L.L.P. specializes in the handling of first-party insurance lawsuits in Texas with an emphasis in those suits alleging extra-contractual causes of action or complex coverage claims. The vast majority of the suits we handle involve personal or commercial lines insurance claims. We have extensive experience in handling disputes and lawsuits arising out of commercial and professional liability policies including environmental and products coverage issues, primary and excess disputes, and defense/indemnity coverage questions. We also have considerable familiarity in defending lawsuits arising out of homeowner policies with particular expertise in SIU claims (arson, alleged theft, etc.) as well as foundation claims allegedly caused by subsurface plumbing leaks. We also have extensive experience in UM/UIM value disputes and auto property claims. We regularly handle liability disputes arising out of auto, homeowner, commercial and professional policies including Stowers disputes. Additionally, we represent life and health insurers in lawsuits arising out of individual life, major medical, and medicare supplement claims.

Firm History

Our firm opened January 1, 2000. Our three founding partners Christopher Martin, David Disiere, and Dale Jefferson brought together in one firm the depth and insurance expertise of one of the state's largest law firms, the insight and strategic perspective of the former assistant counsel for one of the world's largest P&C carriers, and the talent and experience of one of Texas' most recognized trial lawyers. Our goal in forming our firm was simple: provide sophisticated representation to clients in Texas lawsuits in an efficient and cost-effective manner.

Our firm offers some of the most talented insurance litigation lawyers in the state. Christopher Martin, who is Board Certified in consumer law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization, has successfully handled more than 400 first-party insurance lawsuits in state and federal courts in every corner of Texas over the past decade. He is the author of the only legal treatise in print discussing the Texas Insurance Code, he is the Professor of Insurance Law at the University of Houston Law Center, and he is a regular speaker nationally and statewide on numerous insurance-related topics. David Disiere brings 13 years of experience from the world's largest P&C carrier -- State Farm. While with State Farm, David managed and coordinated the Company's defense of first-party lawsuits against it in jurisdictions all across Texas. Dale Jefferson is a nationally renowned litigator and Professor of Appellate Advocacy at the South Texas College of Law. Jack Wisdom is a Board Certified labor and employment specialist who handles HR lawsuits and disputes for insurers and their insureds. Deborah Rank brings a wealth of insurance litigation experience from Bracewell & Patterson where she handled personal lines and commercial lines lawsuits in the trial courts in most of the major metropolitan areas of Texas and where she also handled appeals before the Texas Supreme Court and the state's lower appellate courts. Levon Hovnatanian is an appellate law expert who is board certified in civil appellate law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. We also have a talented team of associates who are very knowledgeable and experienced in first and third party insurance matters.

Over the past decade, our lawyers have literally reshaped and redefined the parameters of Texas Insurance Law. Our lawyers have handled numerous insurance matters before the Texas Supreme Court, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the lower appellate courts of Texas. We try the cases that need to be tried, we arbitrate those cases which need to be arbitrated, and we summarily adjudicate those cases which never should have been filed. Put simply: we solve problems.

We handle a wide range of lawsuits from large class-action insurance lawsuits to multi-party coverage disputes, from value dispute auto cases to property loss homeowner claims, and from problematic life insurance claims to pre-existing health claims. For some insurers, we also defend third-party claims against their insureds. These third party liability cases usually involve fatalities, mass torts, severe personal injuries, or other catastrophe damage claims.

Our Philosophy

We measure success externally: we are successful when our clients experience success. The insurers we represent define success based upon winning cases that they try or appeal, settling cases that need to be settled, arbitrating cases that need to be arbitrated, and solving problems. When our clients are successful in these endeavors, we succeed both as professionals and as a firm. Promotion within the firm is dependent solely upon repeated recognition by clients that a firm lawyer or team of lawyers helped the client achieve the success it desired. Firm success is not gauged by hours worked, dollars billed, or the number of lawyers employed.

Our law firm does not place an hourly-budget requirement on attorneys. We anticipate that all lawyers working full-time will work approximately 1,900 hours a year but the law firm does not maintain a compensation or bonus system tied to billing excessive amounts of hours. Our partners recognize that working excessive hours will inevitably have a detrimental impact on the personal and professional well-being of our lawyers, their families, and their responsibilities. As such, we do not place an hourly-budget requirement on any Partner, Associate or Paralegal.

Our Staff

Other than our Partners and Associates, we employ a talented staff of paralegals and legal secretaries most of whom have more than 20 years of experience as legal professionals and several of whom are bi-lingual. We employ a full-time file clerk to keep our legal files up-to-date, an office manager, an information technology manager, and a receptionist.

Our Structure

The firm is managed by our partners. Dale Jefferson serves as Managing Partner and is responsible for all firm administrative matters. Our Associates work with all of our partners and are not assigned to or exclusively controlled by any one partner. Likewise, our paralegals work for all of the lawyers in the firm. Each secretary works for one partner and one associate.

Our Standards

Exemplary work product is guaranteed by the constant involvement of one or more partners in all legal matters assigned to our law firm. When a lawsuit or other legal matter is assigned to our firm, it is handled from inception to conclusion by a firm partner who takes personal responsibility for all pleadings filed, the overall case strategy, the interaction with the client, the representation of the client in all proceedings before the court, and in the discharge of our professional and ethical responsibilities. Any work delegated to an associate is reviewed and/or supervised by a partner and all pleadings and significant client correspondence drafted by an associate is reviewed by a partner prior to such written product leaving the firm. Legal opinion letters can only be signed by a partner.

The firm maintains a number of institutional controls over the matters we handle. Upon receipt of a new matter, the firm completes a comprehensive conflicts check of both client conflicts and issue conflicts. The firm also maintains redundant calendaring of all client-imposed and court-imposed deadlines in all matters. Partners meet each Monday morning to review all new matters and discuss pending cases. Partners also conduct meetings with the associates and paralegals assigned to all pending matters to review upcoming deadlines, strategy developments, and scheduling issues.

We also handle files in a manner to ensure that problem-litigation files are identified early and case resolution strategies are agreed upon with the client within the first sixty days of a lawsuit being filed in an insurance lawsuit. As soon as the claim file is received, our staff will bates-label each page and provide copies to the client representative, if desired. Within thirty days following receipt of a new lawsuit, the partner assigned to the lawsuit will conduct a detailed written evaluation of the claim and all legal issues raised by the pleadings in order to provide a thorough assessment of the liability and damage exposures, set forth recommendations for future handling, and provide an approximate budget regarding the anticipated legal work on that file. Within sixty days of any trial setting, the responsible partner will also provide a detailed pre-trial report evaluating all liability and damage issues, assessing the strengths and weaknesses of all trial witnesses for all parties, set forth recommendations regarding all trial-related issues, and provide a trial budget.

Our Educational Efforts

Our lawyers strive continually to remain on the cutting edge in Texas Insurance Law. Several of our attorneys are members of the College of the State Bar of Texas representing a commitment to continuing legal education far exceeding the State Bar minimum requirements. Not only do we focus our continuing educational efforts in the area of insurance law, our attorney’s frequently share that knowledge by speaking at C.L.E. seminars. Our lawyers regularly provide in-house training to claims and legal professionals on numerous legal and insurance issues. To ensure that our clients remain abreast of the ever-changing nature of Texas Insurance Law, we publish the Texas Insurance Law Newsbrief for distribution by fax to selected client representatives each week. Each week we summarize appellate insurance decisions from Texas courts, recent jury verdicts in insurance cases, and developments with Texas Department of Insurance. Anyone can be added to our weekly service list by calling us with their name and fax number. To begin receiving the Newsbrief, call Sheila at 713/632-1700.Our attorneys are prolific writers who write and speak regularly for the American Bar Association, the Defense Research Institute, the State Bar of Texas, the University of the Houston Law Center, the University of Texas Law School, and the South Texas College of Law. We regularly circulate our legal papers to those clients we know have an interest in the topics upon which we write. For example, we recently published the Texas Insurance Litigation Reference Guide: Personal Lines Edition which is a compilation of continuing education articles written over the last few months by our lawyers.

Finally, limited complimentary copies of Mr. Martin's insurance treatises are given to clients when published. His book on the Texas Insurance Code is now in its Third Edition and an updated edition is anticipated later this year. Additionally, West Publishing has just printed Mr. Martin’s definitive insurance treatise entitled Texas Practice Guide: Insurance Litigation.

Our Availability

Our lawyers do everything possible to make ourselves available for routine consultations. We maintain voice mail for every employee in the law firm (lawyers, paralegals and secretaries). Our attorneys and paralegals also have firm e-mail addresses which are checked daily. All of our attorneys also maintain cellular phones to facilitate client contact while traveling.

We encourage our clients to contact us any time they need assistance with any matter. Our lawyers do not charge clients for short phone calls seeking general advice on claims issues, coverage decisions, or strategy questions involving claims or matters which have not yet gone to litigation. General client consultations are provided free of charge as a service to our clients based upon our recognition that providing limited advice before a problem develops is far more efficient and economical than having clients ignore problems or make bad claims decisions which inevitably result in expensive litigation.