When your law firm is suspended from practice in Louisiana and the Insurance Commissioner hits you with $2-million in fines, you know it’s a bad day at the office. Things are getting hot under the collar for the law firm of McClenny Moseley Associates. WWL talked with attorney Doug Sunseri about the cases of hundreds of MMA clients:
“The claims are basically frozen,” Sunseri says. “So, what’s happening is number one, they have to find another attorney to represent their claim. And that proposes a problem because if there’s not a lawsuit filed you have to have a lawsuit filed by August 29th in order to preserve your claim.”
And that’s just the first major contention point according to Sunseri:
“Number two is the new attorney basically has to start all over,” Sunseri explains. “And so, they make you start at ground zero prosecuting their claim, at this point a year and half after Hurricane Ida. They’re waiting and they probably are going to have to wait a little bit longer, because they have to transition to a new attorney because they have to preserve their claim.”
This waiting process for a new attorney to come on board, become completely familiar with the case, gather paperwork from MMA and corral evidence from the various home repair companies takes a lot of time.
“They are probably going to have to wait six months or a year longer to get their claim resolved because of the fact that because the train has stopped for an indefinite period of time until they are able to find new council, and start the train moving again in the mediation and case management orders issued by the various courts.”
Finally, there is the fallout from MMA. At one-point MMA reportedly filed 1800 lawsuits over a span of four days, catching the attention and ire of the courts where they were lodged and the insurance commission.
“At some point they filed a lawsuit on behalf of the homeowner without their knowledge, trying to settle the entire claim without the home owner’s knowledge until the time to try and settle. So, I think the judges were also very upset that they actually filed lawsuits without the authority of the homeowners.”
Sunseri is certain some, if not many, attorney’s at MMA are going to lose their license to practice law.