Insurance Coverage
Insurance Coverage work of the firm has grown in the past decade and has involved advice and litigation in a number of high profile matters including the Ocean Point Homeowner Class Action Construction Defect claim and Kuhio Park Terrace Class Litigation. GKA&R Attorneys have handled litigation and provided insurance coverage support services including coverage opinions, Reservation of Rights and disclaimers and matters concerning a variety of insurance policies including comprehensive general liability, directors and officers, Medical Malpractice coverage, hospital liability insurance policies, Homeowners Insurance, Automobile Insurance and Excess Insurance Coverages. The firm has litigated insurance coverage disputes involving policy terms such as the total pollution exclusion endorsement, employers liability endorsement, Automobile Exclusion, Professional Liability Exclusion, Contractual Liability Exclusion and others. The insurance coverage group keeps abreast of current and ever changing law in the fields of Additional Insured endorsements and Supplementary Payment Provisions. The group has also handled matters involving commercial indemnity obligations.
Commercial General Liability
The firm’s work in Commercial General Liability dates back to its earliest days in 1996. The firm has afforded defense to many walks of commercial activity including hotels, supermarkets, national retail chains, restaurants, gasoline service stations, distributors and manufacturers. This work has included the defense of relatively simple slip-and-fall accidents as well as accidents involving complex industrial equipment with injuries ranging from broken bones to brain damage to wrongful death and catastrophic coma. Expert witnesses are very much the focus of the firm’s practice in this area with careful attention to the client’s litigation strategies and guidelines.
Workers' Compensation
The workers’ compensation practice area of the firm is headed by partner Jacqueline W. S. Amai who joined the firm in 2000. It is separately staffed with associates and paralegals familiar with the statutes and administrative rules and regulations specific to workers’ compensation in the State of Hawaii. Ms. Amai and her associates have represented a broad range of clients and business types, counseling and defending large commercial employers and self-insureds, as well as solo entrepreneurs. The firm regularly appears before the Director of Labor and Industrial Relations through the Disability Compensation Division and the Labor and Industrial Relations Appeals Board on matters of workers’ compensation compensability and disputes, and it has both pursued and defended appeals to the Hawaii Intermediate Court of Appeals and the Hawaii Supreme Court. The workers’ compensation practice section of the firm is particularly proud of its success in the prosecution of fraud and the defense against inappropriate and illegal claims.
Estate and Trust
The firm is very active in the area of Estate and Trust matters, including Estate and Trust administration as well as Estate and Trust litigation. The firm takes care to handle the administration of such matters with attention to detail and efficiency. And on those occasions where litigation is necessary, the firm has the skill and determination to do so. This is a practice area requiring a particularized sensibility and judgment, as most Trust administration and Estate litigation matters involve a history and a sense of family relationships not found in other areas of the law.
Asbestos
The firm’s Asbestos defense practice dates back to the original days of asbestos litigation and involves primarily the defense of boiler manufacturers named in connection with Pearl Harbor ship repair and manufacturer exposures. As such, the firm is well seasoned and familiar with case management orders and particularized case management trial schedules assigned to the asbestos litigation cases before the Circuit Courts of Hawaii and the United States Federal District Court for the District of Hawaii.
The firm’s Asbestos defense practice dates back to the original days of asbestos litigation and involves primarily the defense of boiler manufacturers named in connection with Pearl Harbor ship repair and manufacturer exposures. As such, the firm is well seasoned and familiar with case management orders and particularized case management trial schedules assigned to the asbestos litigation cases before the Circuit Courts of Hawaii and the United States Federal District Court for the District of Hawaii.
Construction Defect
The firm maintains an active practice in the defense of construction defect claims. The firm defended a large supplier of EFIS installed product in the largest commercial mold litigation case in Hawaii. The firm has also defended general contractors and subcontractors in projects ranging from Spec Home Construction to large multi-unit condominium construction and the development of Honolulu’s skyscrapers. The firm actively participates in continuing legal education issues relating to construction defect claims including indemnity contracts, additional insured endorsements and unfair/deceptive practices claims. The firm has successfully represented masonry subcontractors, window installation subcontractors, drywall and stucco subcontractors, plumbing subcontractors, carpentry subcontractors, home inspectors, and developer’s construction management consultants. As always, the firm’s practice in this area is careful to meet the client’s litigation strategies and guidelines with a goal of providing an effective and efficient defense.
Automobile and Homeowners Liability
The automobile and homeowners liability defense practice of Gallagher Kane Amai & Reyes provides personal lines insurance carriers and their insured’s with a quality, efficient and effective defense against claims arising from motor vehicle accidents and personal injuries under homeowners liability coverage. Indeed, this is an area where the firm has numerous successful jury trial verdicts. The firm has also provided insured against a defense defamation, wrongful detention and even abuse of process claims in this arena, with several successful summary judgments in this area. Hawaii’s motor vehicle insurance code contains many nuances not found in other states and jurisdictions including “covered loss deductible,” a convoluted tort threshold and extended Statute of Limitations. Because the firm is constantly litigating matters in this area, the firm stays abreast in the changes in the Court Annexed Arbitration Program, treatment of personal injury protection benefits, and motorcycle law. The firm defends its clients in over two dozen motor vehicle arbitration cases a year ranging in medical injuries from soft tissue to wrongful death.