Overview of Oklahoma Automobile Insurance Law
This article is intended to give legal practitioners a basic overview of automobile insurance law so they may gain a general understanding as well as some starting points before they begin more detailed research on specific issues involving their cases.

Oklahoma Bad Faith Basics
As early as 1935, the Oklahoma Supreme Court recognized that an insurer may be liable for the entire amount of a verdict in excess of its policy limits where it fails or refuses, in bad faith, to take advantage of an opportunity to settle within those limits prior to trial. However, not until its 1977 decision in Christian v. American Home Assur. Co. did the Supreme Court establish bad faith as an independent tort upon which an insurer could be held liable for both compensatory and punitive damages for the delay or denial in payment of a claim not reasonably in dispute.

Payment of the Undisputed Amount in Uninsured Motorist Claims: What Insurance Companies and Attorneys Should Know
The Oklahoma Supreme Court has made it clear for over 30 years that an insurer has a duty to promptly pay its insured amounts that are not in dispute where there is no legal or factual issue regarding said undisputed amounts. In Christian v. American Home Assur. Co.,1 the Oklahoma Supreme Court quoted Fletcher v. Western National Life Ins. Co.,2 to explain why insurance companies would be subject to the implied duty to act in good faith and deal fairly:

I Want One Of Those!
Experts in A Bad Faith Case — Everyone Needs One, Or Do They?
What seems like decades ago, I had the opportunity to try three different civil jury trials in the course of a little more than one year before the same federal judge in Oklahoma. That still seems like a lot of face time before this particular judge in a short time frame. At that time I had already completed 20 or 30 jury trials, including some involving experts.

Discoverability of the Insurance Company’s Claims File in Third-Party Litigation
The contents of an insurance company’s claims file are thought to include the veritable “keys to the cash,” “the thought processes of the claims department” and “of all who contribute to the contents of the claims file.” Plaintiff attorneys issue discovery requests seeking production of the claims file (or at least portions of it) and such requests are often resisted based upon a claim of “privilege.” Often the insurance company whose claims file is the subject of the subpoena or discovery request is uncertain how to respond. The purpose of this article is to address the issue of discoverability of an insurance company’s claims file in third party litigation and to provide a reasonable approach for responding to such discovery requests which can be as easy as A, B, C.

Republic Underwriters Ins. Co. v. Fire Ins. Exchange:
The Fallacy of the Pro Rata Clause and Its Influence on the Application of the Equitable Doctrines of Subrogation and Contribution in Oklahoma
“Even a cursory reading of judicial opinions in this area reveals a great deal of confusion in the courts about the equitable doctrines of subrogation and contribution, their differences and their appropriate applications to various factual circumstances.”

Differences in Handling Insurance Claims under State Law vs. ERISA
A Difference of Kind, Not Degree
The purpose of this article is to explore the procedural and substantive differences in litigating an insurance claim under state law and under the federal law known as ERISA (Employee Retirement Income Security Act). Because this is an examination of the differences between how a first party insurance claim would proceed under state law versus the federal law, it will not be an in-depth examination of either law.

Employment Law Section
Family and Medical Leave Act Amended for Servicemembers
On Jan. 28, 2008, President Bush signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act of 2008,1 which amended the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)2 of 1993 for the first time since its enactment. The amendments expand the FMLA to provide job protected leave to families of servicemembers of the U.S. Armed Forces. Prior to the amendments, the FMLA provided eligible employees3 up to 12 workweeks of unpaid job-protected leave during any 12-month period for: 1) the birth of a child of the employee and in order to care for such child; 2) the placement of a child with the employee for adoption or foster care;

Employment Law Section
Admissibility of ‘Me, Too’ Evidence in Employment Discrimination Cases
U.S. Supreme Court Declines to Adopt Rule
The U.S. Supreme Court, in a unanimous opinion reversing the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, recently declined to adopt a blanket rule for the admissibility of so-called “me, too” evidence in a federal discrimination lawsuit. “Me, too” evidence is testimony by nonparties claiming discrimination which is offered to persuade the jury that the plaintiff’s termination from employment was discriminatory.

Missing Witness
Practicing trial lawyer Gordon Campbell debuts as a murder mystery novelist with Missing Witness. The novel’s narrator is newly licensed lawyer Doug McKenzie who turns down a big California law firm’s offer to work instead at the same firm as famed criminal defense lawyer Dan Morgan in Arizona. When McKenzie’s chance comes at last to work with Morgan, McKenzie jumps at it, walking off a golf course in the middle of playing a championship final.