Trial is scheduled to begin on November 10, 2025, in Alameda Superior Court in Y.L. et al., v. Truck Insurance Exchange, et al., Case No. 24 CV063297. Pillsbury & Coleman filed the lawsuit in February 2024, alleging that Truck Insurance Exchange, a member of the massive Farmers Insurance Group of Companies, wrongfully refused to defend its insured, Patricia Aguinaga, in an underlying action brought by Y.L., a minor, and his mother, that resulted in a $10 million judgment against Ms. Aguinaga.
Although the Alameda County Superior Court has already ruled that Farmers wrongfully refused to defend Ms. Aguinaga, Farmers has designated attorney GailAnn Stargardter to opine that Farmers’ claims-handling was error-free and should be used as an example of what good claims handling looks like. We have uncovered that Ms. Stargardter’s extreme views are not limited to this case, as she and fellow attorney Colette Stone did a joint presentation on good faith claims handling in which one of their PowerPoint slides blames “social inflation,” specifically citing the social injustice movement, “Black Lives Matter,” as being “exceedingly dangerous for business” and contributing to “increased settlement demands, verdicts and in turn the payment of claims by insurers.”
Extreme views such as these should be exposed. To download their PowerPoint slides, click here (key slides are 69 and 71)
Previous update on our case here