Total-Loss Claims After the Class-Action Blockade: The Policyholder’s Valuation Fight

Galen M. Hair, Partner | Hair Shunnarah Trial Attorneys

Galen M. Hair is a trial attorney who has represented policyholders in insurance coverage and civil litigation since 2009, concentrating on property-damage claims, bad-faith insurance disputes, and disaster recovery for homeowners and businesses. He is a Partner at Hair Shunnarah Trial Attorneys and the founder of Insurance Claim HQ, a national insurance-recovery practice, serving clients from around the world and handling bet-the-company insurance litigation. He is a national voice on insurance recovery and the best-selling author of the field’s authoritative handbook for policyholders.

• Education & Credentials

Hair earned a Bachelor of Music from Boston University and went on to take his J.D. from Tulane University Law School in 2009. He is licensed to practice law in Louisiana and in additional jurisdictions, positioning him to litigate first-party insurance disputes across multiple states.

• Recognition & Leadership

Hair’s work has drawn recognition across the bar and the insurance-litigation community. He has been selected to Super Lawyers for insurance coverage, following earlier Rising Star honors, named to the National Trial Lawyers Top 40 Under 40, and listed among the Top 10 Bad Faith Insurance Lawyers. He holds Martindale-Hubbell’s AV rating — the highest available — along with an Avvo Clients’ Choice distinction and a perfect 10.0 client score, and he has been named a Top Lawyer by New Orleans Magazine and honored with a Pro Bono Publico Award for his service to those in need.

• Professional Involvement

Beyond his caseload, Hair is a sought-after national speaker on insurance recovery, presenting for public-adjusting firms, contractors, and national organizations, and he is regularly consulted by major media outlets — including the real-estate publication Inman — for his perspective on property claims. He also gives back to the profession as an Assistant Examiner in Constitutional Law for the Louisiana Bar Exam.

• Experience

Across more than fifteen years of practice, Hair founded and built Insurance Claim HQ into a nationally focused policyholder practice — carried forward today through his work at Hair Shunnarah Trial Attorneys and Insurance Claim Lawyers, Inc. — helping homeowners and businesses recover on underpaid and denied property-insurance claims, bad-faith disputes, and losses suffered in the aftermath of disaster, from individual homeowners rebuilding after catastrophe to companies facing bet-the-company exposure. He distilled that experience into the best-selling Picking Up the Pieces: Surviving Your Property Insurance Claim, the authoritative handbook that guides policyholders through the claims process.

SESSION 1 – Auditing the Algorithmic Total-Loss Valuation and Picking the Forum | 12:00pm – 1:00pm

This session teaches policyholder attorneys how to systematically audit a CCC ONE Market Valuation Report, identify the three algorithmic deductions most commonly attacked in litigation—Projected Sold Adjustments, condition adjustments, and comparable vehicle selection errors—and build a counter-valuation. It also covers forum selection strategy, including CAFA removal risk, the local controversy exception, and state regulatory variance that creates forum-shopping opportunities. Attorneys will leave with a practical audit checklist and a framework for deciding whether to file in state or federal court given the class-action blockade created by insurer-invoked appraisal clauses.

BREAK | 1:00pm – 1:10pm

SESSION 2 – Appraisal Demands and the Individual Total-Loss Lawsuit | 1:10pm – 2:10pm

This session equips policyholder-side attorneys with the complete toolkit for pursuing individual total-loss underpayment claims after class certification has been blocked. Attendees will learn how to sequence appraisal demands against individual lawsuits, navigate the mootness trap created by Stewart v. Farmers, and build bad-faith cases that survive appraisal completion. By the end of this session, attorneys will be able to evaluate jurisdiction-specific appraisal mechanics, anticipate discovery disputes under Eddy v. Farmers, and assess when extracontractual damages — including punitive damages — are available.