Samuel Barnum has over thirty years of experience as a trial lawyer whose civil litigation practice has concentrated on insurance coverage claims and litigation. For over twelve years prior to establishing his own practice as an insurance coverage attorney for policyholders, he worked first as a claims attorney for a leading insurance company in California, supervising legal malpractice claims, and later as an insurance defense attorney representing defendants in civil cases, including legal malpractice, construction defect, commercial contract, premises liability and product liability cases. In that stage of his legal career, he also represented a number of insurance companies in insurance litigation arising out of coverage disputes with other insurance companies.
Since 1990, Mr. Barnum’s has devoted his law practice exclusively to representing policyholders in disputes with their insurance companies. His varied and extensive experience has provided invaluable knowledge and understanding of California insurance law and practice. These include judicial and statutory rules governing all aspects of insurance contracts, including contract interpretation, the insurer’s duty to investigate, claims-handling practices, and the insurer’s duty to act in good faith and fair dealing. With respect to liability policies, such as the commercial general liability policies for business clients and the personal liability coverage of the typical homeowner’s policy, Mr. Barnum has handled over a thousand cases involving either an insurer’s duty to defend or its duty to settle.