BKBH practices in a number of insurance-related areas.  Our insurance attorneys in Montana  represent scores of insurance clients, and we advise them on state and federal law matters, concerning such things as coverage issues under commercial liability, automobile, property and casualty, and other insurance policies. We represent insurers in declaratory actions and actions to intervene in pending litigation, bringing policy rescission actions, and defending bad faith claims. We have also served as state appointed special liquidator for insolvent insurance companies.

For nearly twenty years, our insurance attorneys in Montana have actively defended and advised insurers on a broad range of insurance coverage matters. There are at least a dozen attorneys at BKBH who have extensive experience in insurance law and insurance defense.  To set up an appointment with one of those attorneys, please contact either Oliver Goe or Leo Ward in our Helena office  (406-443-6820).

Our insurance attoneys pride themselves as being in the forefront of Montana's trial and appellate insurance practice. Our insurance practice includes coverage opinions for first party property and homeowners insurance, automobile insurance, life and accident insurance, comprehensive general liability insurance, commercial and business interruption insurance, professional liability insurance, and employment insurance. All of BKBH's lawyers, who practice in the insurance litigation practice areas of our firm, are active litigators in the state and federal courts.

Insurance Defense
BKBH's insurance attorneys represent many  insurance companies, including self-insurers, on a variety of issues ranging from coverage determinations to bad faith claims. The firm's representation involves all available forums, including state and federal court, administrative proceedings, and claims before the Insurance Commissioner. The firm also provides advice on all insurance-related issues directly to its insurance clients and full litigation support.

Representative Insurance Defense Cases:

Wrigg v. L&H, LLC, et al. (Mont. 2006). This was a premises liability case where BKBH represented the tenant/operator. BKBH prevailed on a summary judgment in the district court, and that judgement was affirmed by the Montana Supreme Court (Case Number 2006 MT 338N).

Flesch v. McDonald's Restaurant, et al., 2005 MT 235 (2005). This was a slip and fall case in which BKBH represented the defendant restaurant. On behalf of the defendant, BKBH obtained summary judgment on liability and an order dismissing the case as a sanction for discovery abuses. The Montana Supreme Court recently affirmed the trial court, requiring BKBH’s client to pay nothing to the plaintiff.

General Lines of Insurance
Our lawyers represent more than twenty-five different insurance carriers that insure against a wide range of risks. We at BKBH pride ourselves with the efficiencies that we seek to provide to our insurance clients, and we continue our efforts to work with our insurance clients using increasingly responsive techniques. The cooperative efforts we have exerted on behalf of the dozens of insurance adjusters over the years have earned us the continuing respect of our insurance clients.

Property & Casualty
We pride ourselves in our work advising and defending various property and casualty underwriters who insure businesses or individuals in Montana against various risks such as fire, homeowners, automobile, marine, liability, or workers' compensation. Defending P&C underwriters and their policy holders is frequently not glamorous work, but we regard it as one of the more important roles we, as lawyers, can play in assisting our clients.

Self Insurance
For nearly twenty years, BKBH has represented Montana-based self-insurers. Some of these self-insurers are corporations doing business in Montana. Others are non-profit organizations that self-insure against risks, such as workers' compensation injuries or health care or other types of self-insurance. Our-self insurance practice involves advising and defending self-insured entities all over Montana. We have helped prepare the organizational documents that created these groups, and we have helped pursue state legislation that allowed them to be created in the first place.

Professional Liability Insurance
BKBH represents professionals who are exposed to liability in their chosen professions. Insurance of this type is frequently provided in the form of claims made policies that cover monetary loss and expense of an insured attorney or law firm for legal liability in the rendering of professional services as defined by the policy. Most of our work in this arena has been to defend medical practitioners who have been alleged to have engaged in negligently causing injury to their patients. Our attorneys pride themselves in the quality and tenacity of their representation of these professionals.

Workers Compensation Insurance
For more than twenty years, BKBH attorneys have offered our clients a broad spectrum of counseling and advice on a variety of legal issues arising under Montana's Workers' Compensation Act. The Firm advises state funded and self-insured clients with matters pertaining to premium rates, non-compliance, establishing and/or transferring risk experience and renders assistance in maintaining self-insured privileges under workers' compensation laws. We recognize that minimization of workers' compensation injuries can begin before applications are filed. Our lawyers have counseled clients on investigation of what happens even before these claims are filed, and we have advised employer clients on workplace hazards. Above all, we have successfully defended clients against workers compensation claims in many arenas. We routinely defend employers against civil actions both at the trial court and at the appellate level, and we have taken appeals to the Montana Supreme Court and actually won some appeals. Our firm has helped achieve reforms to Montana's statutes governing workers compensation. We have commented on proposed legislation and agency guidelines to alter Montana's workers compensation policies. Our Workers' Compensation practitioners frequently appear on the programs of statewide and regional seminars on Montana's workers' compensation laws. In short, workers compensation defense has become a major part of BKBH's insurance defense practice.

Representative Workers Compensation Insurance Cases:

Zimmerman v. Continental Western Insurance Company. (1996) - Our firm defended a property damage insurer being sued for bad faith related to major water damage in a restaurant. By our Motion for Summary Judgment, Plaintiffs' common law bad faith and emotional distress claims were dismissed and Plaintiffs were limited to claims arising under the Unfair Claims Practices Act.

Continental Western v. Fleet Mobile. (1998) - Our firm brought a declaratory judgment insurance coverage claim in federal court arising out of privacy violation claims under the Health Care Information Act. The case was resolved by a favorable global settlement involving the insurer, the insured, and the injured parties.

Runnells v. Main Street Lounge. (1999) - Our firm is currently representing the insurer of a Butte bar being sued for the alleged assault on a bar patron. Discovery is proceeding and a May trial date is scheduled.

Medical Malpractice Insurance Defense

In 1991, BKBH made a commitment to join the handful of law firms in Montana conducting medical malpractice defense. This commitment was a natural progression given our long-standing association as counsel for the Montana Hospital Association. Since that time, we have been retained by various medical malpractice insurance carriers to represent their insured health care providers. We have also become counsel to the Helena Health Alliance, which is a physician/hospital organization comprised of over 70 Helena area physicians. Our firm's central location in Helena provides convenient access for the physicians, hospital administrators and nurses who appear before the Montana Medical-Legal Panel, which sits in Helena and hears all medical malpractice claims filed in Montana. Due to our success in defending medical malpractice claims, medical malpractice defense has become one of the major components of the firm's litigation practice.

Over the past 15 years we have handled hundreds of claims filed against physicians and hospitals in all parts of Montana. We have represented the total spectrum of practicing physicians including, but not limited to, anesthesiologists, family practitioners, internists, obstetricians and gynecologists, oncologists, orthopedic surgeons, pediatricians, and general surgeons. We have experienced a diverse array of medical issues including failure to diagnose breast cancer, amniotic fluid embolisms, hypoxic ischemic, encephalopathy, abdominal surgery, hantavirus, foreign objects etc. Of the cases defended, approximately half are dropped after the Panel proceedings, and the other half go on to further litigation. Of the cases advanced to litigation, we are able to secure dismissals, summary judgments, or settlements in the vast majority of those cases. However, when no alternative exists, we have vigorously defended cases at trial.

We believe we have obtained the trust and confidence of the insurers and the insured physicians we represent. As an area of specialization, BKBH is committed to expanding the role medical malpractice defense plays in the firm's overall practice.

Representative Medical Malpractice Insurance Cases:

Baugh v. Sanders (2006) - Dan Hoven and Aimee Grmoljez represented an internal medicine physician in this medical malpractice case. A 12-0 Helena jury found no breach of the standard of care in connection with Defendant Physicians' care and treatment of Plaintiff in 1997-1999. The jury deliberated approximately 1 hour on the fourth day of trial involving allegations of negligent failure to diagnose Plaintiffs' colorectal cancer.

Howard v. Thorne (2004) - Dan Hoven and Sara Berg represented an emergency room physician in this medical malpractice case. A 12-0 Butte jury found no breach of the standard of care in connection with Defendant Physicians' emergency care and treatment of Plaintiff in August of 1997. The jury deliberated 2 ½ hours on the fifth day of trial involving allegations of improper treatment of epileptic seizures and unauthorized HIV testing in the Butte emergency room.

Snell v. Defendant Physician. (1998) - This case involved a traumatic delivery of a baby at the Indian Health Service at the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation. The mother was a 42 year old, insulin dependent diabetic who went into pre-term labor and the baby presented in a footing breach position. BKBH is defending the obstetrician gynecologist who was providing prenatal care to Mrs. Snell in Havre, Montana, some 40 miles from the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation. The child suffered asphyxia and has resulting brain damage.

Bueling v. Defendant Physician. (1997) - A 12 - 0 Great Falls jury found no negligence against Defendant Physician arising out of his treatment of Bueling for hantavirus. The jury deliberated 1 hour and 30 minutes on the 6th day.

Lander v. Defendant Physician. (1995) - A 12 - 0 Helena jury found no negligence by Defendant Physician in connection with x-ray and CT scan readings of Lander involving allegations of delayed diagnosis of esophageal cancer in this five-day trial seeking punitive damages. The jury deliberated 1 hour and 20 minutes on the 5th day. No appeal.

In Re Silicone Gel Breast Implants Products Liability Litigation. (1994) - BKBH was designated as Montana's breast implant counsel for The Doctors' Company. We have been responsible for the coordination and management of the defense of eight different claims brought against plastic surgeons in Montana. BKBH has defended those claims as they proceeded through the Montana Medical Legal Panel, the proceedings before the Montana Breast Implant Coordinating Judge, and the Northern District of Alabama in the multi-district litigation above. To date, all of those claims against the plastic surgeons, have either been found to be lacking in merit as a result of proceedings before the Medical Legal Panel or otherwise voluntarily dismissed with the exception of one claim which remains in the Northern District of Alabama.

Waller v. Defendant Physician. (1993) - An 8 - 4 Sidney jury found no negligence by Defendant Physician in connection with an intra operative injury to Waller's small bowel during her surgery in 1989. The jury deliberated 1 hour 45 minutes on the 8th day of this trial involving allegations of unnecessary hysterectomy, battery, negligence, and punitive damages. The defense verdict was affirmed by the Montana Supreme Court on December 13, 1994. 

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