Brent R. Austin

• Represented CNA in long term care class and individual litigation over the construction of policy language written decades before care options expanded dramatically from nursing homes to a broad range of assisted-living facilities. 
• Represented various insurers in a nationwide RICO class action naming dozens of insurance companies as defendants. The plaintiff alleged that the defendants conspired to defraud their policyholders by including unlawful charges in retrospectively-rated workers’ compensation insurance programs. The district court certified a nationwide class of all persons who purchased a retrospectively-rated workers’ compensation program over a 16-year period, finding that class members could establish RICO injury and causation by proving they paid an invoice containing the allegedly unlawful charge. The Fifth Circuit reversed, holding that the district court had impermissibly ignored defendants’ evidence and submissions, which established the need for a jury to consider individual issues of knowledge, disclosure, and reliance.
• Represented Continental Casualty Company, Transportation Insurance Company, other "CNA" companies, Lumbermens Mutual Casualty Company, other "Kemper" companies, and Great American Insurance Company in the Voluntary Market Premium Litigation. This was a series of lawsuits filed in federal and state courts in which the plaintiffs claimed that workers’ compensation insurers had improperly passed through residual market assessments and violated premium rate filings. Plaintiffs sought certification of nationwide or statewide classes under federal and state antitrust laws, the RICO statute, conspiracy theories, deceptive trade practices acts, fraud theories, and contract theories.
• Represented AIG in a Madison County, Illinois class lawsuit in which plaintiffs alleged that defendant workers’ compensation carriers committed consumer fraud and were unjustly enriched by charging premiums based on total payroll when workers’ compensation benefits for high wage earners were capped. The plaintiffs sought to represent a class of all Illinois employers affected by the “total payroll” rule.
• Represented CNA in trial courts and on appeal in multiple putative nationwide class actions alleging the company induced policyholders to buy under-priced “guaranteed renewable” long term care policies, intending to raise rates later.
• Represented a major property and casualty carrier in a class action arising from disputes over coverage for losses suffered during the August 14, 2003 Northeast Blackout. Succeeded in obtaining summary judgment for our client.
• Lead defense counsel in defeating certification of nationwide false marketing, consumer fraud, nuisance, and product liability class action involving industry-wide challenge to CCA pressure treated wood.
• Successful defense of purported Fair Credit Reporting Act class action alleging improper use of credit information. 
• Represented CNA is a proposed nationwide class action challenging the purported failure to Medicare set asies with respect to workers’ compensation claims under the Medicare Secondary Payor statute.)
  
• Defended Milwaukee Insurance Company, a subsidiary of Unitrin, in a class action involving the calculation of premiums for workers’ compensation insurance.
• Represent an insurer in an alleged nationwide class action brought under federal antitrust and RICO statutes, as well as various state antitrust statutes and state common law. The matter also includes numerous “tag along” actions consolidated for pretrial proceedings by the Judicial Panel for Multidistrict Litigation. The case alleges conspiracies among insurance brokers and property and casualty insurers to allocate markets and customers for commercial insurance in addition to various state law violations. It alleges a nationwide class of unprecedented scope and involves complex issues concerning the nature of relationships among insurance brokers, policyholders, and insurance companies.
• Represented an insurer in a putative nationwide class action challenging the practice of reviewing and reducing charges in medical bills submitted pursuant to workers’ compensation insurance policies.
• Represented CNA in successful defense of putative nationwide class action challenging the use of computer software to value properties in paying claims on homeowners’ insurance policies.
• Represented Great American and CNA in a series of putative nationwide class actions challenging the use of “Colossus” software to adjust claims on automobile policies.
  
• Represented Argonaut in putative nationwide class action alleging “silent PPO” theories, i.e., that carriers who took discounts on medical bill charges under PPO agreements had affirmative obligation to steer or refer patients to PPO providers; obtained dismissal in favor of defendant. 
• Represented an insurer in a putative collective and class action brought by former employees under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, and various state laws.

Publications And Presentations:

• Co-Author, "Combatting Class Certification After CAFA Removal," Law360, June 10, 2010.
• Speaker, "Bellwether Trials: Evolving Trends in Class Action and Complex Litigation," Strafford Publications Webinar, March 25, 2010.
• Co-Author, Chapter of Antitrust Class Actions Handbook, American Bar Association, 1st ed., 2010.
• Co-Author, “BPA Update: Beyond Baby Bottles,” BNA Class Action Litigation Report, April 10, 2009.
• Co-Presenter, “Deceptive Advertising Cases: Do They Survive McLaughlin?,” Andrews Publications E-Seminar, October 16, 2008.
• Co-Author, "An Old Whine in New Bottles? What's New – And What Isn't – About the Current Wave of BPA Litigation," BNA's Class Action Litigation, Vol. 9, No. 15, August 8, 2008.
• Co-Author, “Strategies for Defeating Class Certification in Mass Tort Cases,” Exploring Toxic Tort and Environmental Liability Claims, 2007
• Speaker, “Antitrust, RICO, and Conspiracy,” ACI, National In-House Counsel Conference, March 2006.
• Speaker, “Defending RICO and Conspiracy Class Actions,” 5th Annual Class Action Litigation Summit sponsored by Northstar Conferences LLC, June 2006.
• Speaker, “Discovery In Class Actions,” Strafford Publications Conference, August 2005.
• Speaker, “Trends in Consumer Class Actions,” Class Action Litigation Summit, June 2005.
• Speaker, In-House Counsel Forum on Defending & Managing Class Actions and Other Complex Litigation, March 2005.
• Author, “The ‘Economic Loss Only’ Product Liability Class Action: Claim-Splitting as a Strategy for Obtaining Class Certification,” ABA Class Actions and Derivative Suits, Spring 2004.
• Author, “Enough is Enough: Alleged Forum Manipulation and Class Certification Denial,” BNA Class Action Litigation Report, September 10, 2004.