In federal court in the Western District of Louisiana, a majority of the firm’s over 1,600 cases remain paused after a judge took note of the extraordinary number McClenny filed and worried about irregularities, like duplicate filings and a lack of research going into each case.
‘Thrown by the wayside’
In some cases, it was found that the firm’s clients had no insurance policy with the company they were suing — suggesting that the suit may have been filed against the wrong insurer. This might mean that those homeowners lost their chance of getting their day in court with their actual insurance company since the deadline to file for both hurricanes Laura and Delta has passed.
Others were associated with addresses far outside of the usual area for hurricane damages from Laura and Delta, located as far north as Ruston and Monroe, which was one reason for halting the firm’s cases cited by Federal District Court Judge James D. Cain.
Even for at least one client with a more standard claim, dealing with the law firm has been difficult.
Deidre Declouette in her living room with family members visiting for Mardi Gras week on February 22, 2023.
In Oberlin, an hour’s drive northeast of Lake Charles, Deirdre Declouette saw her tin roof damaged and her home shifted on its foundation by Laura. After seeing a commercial for McClenny on TV, she reached out to the law firm. They quickly sent out an inspector to assess the damage and filed suit just before the deadline for Laura cases in August 2022.
“That’s been months ago and I haven’t seen or heard from anybody,” said Declouette, a mother of three and grandmother of eight who works as a secretary for the local district attorney’s office. “No emails, no phone calls back, no nothing.”
Declouette, 55, said she feels “left, thrown by the wayside,” by both the law firm and her insurance company, which refused to pay anything, arguing that the damages would fall within her deductible.
“It’s sad to me that I got treated like that,” Declouette said, sitting at her kitchen table, below buckled ceiling tiles. Water still drips into her house when it rains.