|
 Defending
business clients in a hostile jurisdiction is the hallmark of Kay Fuller’s practice.
Since joining the firm in 1990, Ms. Fuller, a shareholder of the firm, has concentrated
her practice on the defense of insurers in coverage and extra-contractual matters
at trial and appeal. Ms. Fuller has successfully tried a number of “bad faith”
cases in West Virginia and also provides coverage counsel. She also actively litigates
administrative matters and chairs the firm’s litigation department.
She
is presently involved in litigating issues of first impression ranging from privacy
rights to discovery of attorney-client privileged materials in claim files. She
regularly defends institutional attacks against insurance carriers wherein punitive
damages are sought and provides risk management and litigation strategies to clients
to defeat such broad-based attacks. Ms. Fuller provides counsel to insurers on
a regional and national level and is sought after as a speaker on insurance-related
topics. Ms. Fuller successfully represented Allstate Insurance
Company twice before the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals wherein the Court
recognized the attorney-client privilege in first and third party “bad faith”
cases in State ex rel. Allstate v Madden and State ex rel. Allstate v Gaughan,
respectively. She was also trial and appellate counsel in Costello v Allstate
wherein the Court addressed for the first time the doctrine of reasonable expectations
to insurance agents. She was also appellate counsel to Nationwide Mutual Insurance
Company in Martino v Barnett, where West Virginia was the first jurisdiction to
consider application of the Gramm Leach Bliley Act to private information contained
in claim files. She also served as appellate counsel to State Farm in Strum v
Swanson and State Farm which limited the type of damages recoverable in wrongful
death claims. She also successfully argued before the U.S.
Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit on the issue of whether a first-party
claimant substantially prevailed against his insurer in Jones v Allstate and was
instrumental in prohibiting the admissibility of hedonic damages in West Virginia
in Wilt v Buracker, the leading case in the nation prohibiting such evidence in
civil trials. Ms. Fuller has authored articles and lectures
extensively before local, regional and home offices of insurance carriers, agents
and practitioners in the area of insurance, “bad faith” and discovery, as well
as application of the Unfair Claims Settlement Practices Act. She has also been
recognized as an expert witness in the field of insurance “bad faith.”
Ms. Fuller is licensed to practice in all state and federal courts in West Virginia
and Virginia as well as the Supreme Court of the United States. She was awarded
membership in the Order of Barristers while attending the West Virginia University
College of Law and was recently recognized as a “Super Lawyer” in the fields of
civil litigation defense and appellate advocacy in West Virginia. | 
