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Unraveling massive ‘roofing scheme’ leaving storm insurance payouts in limbo

Thousands of Louisiana homeowners’ insurance claims have been thrust into limbo since early March.

By David Hammer / Eyewitness Investigator

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Published: 7:01 PM CDT May 1, 2023
Updated: 10:19 PM CDT May 1, 2023

One federal judge in New Orleans ruled the attorneys at Houston-based law firm McClenny, Moseley and Associates lied to him, lied to storm victims and lied to their insurance companies in the wake of damaging storms in what he called “a pattern of misconduct on a scale likely never before seen here."

Another federal judge in Lake Charles accused MMA of trying “to prey on people” in western Louisiana after they were victimized by devastating twin hurricanes in 2020.

And the Louisiana insurance commissioner has accused MMA of “a fraudulent scheme” and “unfair trade practices.”

The actions of the Texas law firm and its former Louisiana managing partner, William Huye, have turned the state’s civil court system on its ear for over a year. MMA, which had never practiced in Louisiana until 2021, appeared seemingly out of nowhere and signed up 15,000 Louisiana storm victims as clients, according to founding partner Zach Moseley’s own estimate.

Moseley and Huye bragged they were using new technology to help more storm victims than ever before. At first, the brash newcomers were merely a nuisance for Louisiana courts trying to handle a massive caseload of storm insurance disputes. But six months after the young lawyers’ first testy hearings in front of skeptical judges, the scope of MMA’s impact is now becoming clearer.

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