Judge blasts State Farm for conduct in Broken Arrow case

OKLAHOMA CITY – Lawyers for State Farm Fire and Casualty endured some blistering criticism on Tuesday leveled by a judge presiding over a case filed by a Broken Arrow couple against the insurer.

In the case, Billy and Lacy Hursh allege that State Farm wrongfully denied them payment on a legitimate claim for roof damage after a hailstorm. The law firm of Whitten Burrage represents the couple along with hundreds of other Oklahomans who have filed similar claims. Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond has similar cases pending separately against both State Farm and Allstate Insurance Co.

Plaintiffs allege that the companies engaged in internal schemes either to deny or underpay valid claims made by policyholders in order to increase their profits.

The Hursh case, originally filed in April 2025, has been slow to progress as opposing lawyers have filed repeated, dueling motions concerning, among other things, documents that State Farm should be obligated to provide and whether several executives of the company should sit for depositions.

In November, Oklahoma County District Judge Amy Palumbo ordered the company to comply with requests for potential documentary evidence and witness statements. Since then, there have been other delays and appeals followed by accusations that State Farm "dumped" thousands of documents, including scores of blank pages or blank pages marked only as "confidential," supposedly as its response to the court's order. Attorneys for the plaintiffs also informed the court that State Farm executives have either not appeared for timely depositions or have been uncooperative and unresponsive to questions.

At a scheduled hearing on Tuesday, Palumbo had clearly had enough. She scolded State Farm's attorneys for being unresponsive, denied their request for more time, threatened the company with legal sanctions if it continues its apparent delay tactics and ordered a trial previously scheduled in the case to remain on the books for Dec. 7.

"This case has gotten out of hand, and it is time for this court to step in and drive it straight to trial without any additional, unnecessary stops along the way," Palumbo said.

The judge was particularly critical of the document dump.

"In my mind, (it represents) 20 lawyers who are refusing to comply with the bare basics that Oklahoma law says must be complied with," she said. "It is a complete waste of everybody's time, including this court's, to just dump things off on another party."

She also blasted the company's response to having its executives sit for depositions. At one point, she said she would sit in on depositions herself to make sure that they're held in compliance with her orders and the law.

"(And) all parties will learn very quickly that I do not appreciate wasting the court's time," she said.

Palumbo rejected arguments made by State Farm that requests for discovery evidence have been ill-defined, "overbroad" and would be too burdensome or too expensive to accommodate.

"State Farm has had every opportunity to come in and … explain why they cannot comply, and they don't," she said. "State Farm instead has sent the same lawyers in here to twist in the wind and essentially say they're doing their best … and that I should be swayed."

The judge set a new, September deadline for the company to respond with documents properly presented and depositions provided by key executives.

Following the hearing, attorneys for the plaintiffs, Blake Sonne and Hannah Whitten, met for a few minutes with reporters. State Farm's attorneys did not.

"This will be the first time that State Farm executives in Bloomington (Illinois) have to answer for their wind and hail initiative. They've never been under oath to answer those questions, so this is sort of an historic day with respect to these hundreds and hundreds of lawsuits that have been going on within our state," Sonne said.

"We look forward to State Farm addressing how much money it has saved at the expense of (policyholders)," Whitten said. "We believe that these documents show that State Farm is engaged in an intentional scheme to drastically reduce roof payments, so while Oklahomans are sitting in their homes having leaks, unable to get a new roof, having their kids breathe in mold, State Farm executives are flying around in private jets."

In a previous statement, State Farm said it has faced broad accusations based on disputes over individual claims and strongly denied any intentional effort to underpay or deny wind and hail roof claims.

"Coverage determinations involve many factors, including the cause and extent of the damage, the terms, conditions, endorsements, and exclusions of the customer's policy, as well as any additional information provided during the claims process. For that reason, it is not accurate to characterize a claim as simply 'covered' or 'not covered' without understanding the full context," the statement read. "Our goal is to evaluate every claim fairly, explain our decisions clearly, and help our customers recover as quickly as possible.'"