News

Holtz Quoted in The Daily Transcript

February 16, 2006

"Stutz Artiano Relies on Expertise to Anticipate Results" by Doug Sherwin

San Diego -- One of the keys to litigating an insurance case is experience, which could be why so many client firms turn to the lawyers at Stutz Artiano Shinoff & Holtz.

Most of the partners in the firm's 19-member San Diego office have anywhere from 13-25 plus years of experience in trying cases.

The time in the courtroom has made the attorneys at Stutz Artiano good prognosticators.

"We can evaluate liability and what the expected award will be very early on because we've seen these types of cases before," said partner Jim Holtz, who heads the firm's insurance practice. "We can identify what the likely result will be at trial ...whether a verdict will be in a certain range.

"We're willing to stand by our initial or even our midstream evaluations, and then it's the carrier's choice whether to settle."

Holtz recently predicted the exact amount of a case that returned an $85,000 verdict.

The partners at Stutz Artiano factor the competency of opposing counsel and the facts of liability into evaluating what an expected verdict range will be.

"The measure of what an insurer is looking for is not only good results at trial but no surprises," Holtz said. "The insurance industry likes to assess its risks and understand what its exposures are."

Stutz Artiano has its roots in the insurance practice. One of its founding members, Sidney Stutz, opened a mainly insurance litigation firm with John McCormick and Glen Mitchell.

In 1992, Stutz broke off to form what is currently Stutz Artiano Shinoff & Holtz. The group has expanded its practice to encompass commercial law litigation, handling everything from construction and real estate matters to product liability.

The firm now has four other offices, including ones in Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

While the insurance practice represents only 30 percent of what the firm does, it is still prominent.

"What we promote both within the firm and to our clients is we put our client's interests first," Holtz said. "It's our concern that the clients be well informed of the appropriate risk and benefits of trying a case. We do it in a way that ultimately promotes their interests."

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