Eric H. Gibbs

Gibbs said he's fielding calls regarding business interruption insurance claim denials and filing cases regularly as the coronavirus pandemic rolls on.

"The carriers seem to be speaking with one voice and that voice issues fast denials," he said. "Businesses bought and paid for this kind of insurance for this kind of thing, and blanket turndowns are outrageous."

The founder of Gibbs Law Group is looking forward to a June 26 final approval hearing at which U.S. District Judge Jeffrey S. White of Oakland is expected to OK a $40 million settlement with Facebook Inc. It involves claims by purchasers of video advertising who allege the site overstated its metrics for the average time spent watching videos on the platform by as much as 900% and as a result falsely induced advertisers to buy its ad services. Tyler Barnett PR LLC v. Facebook, 4:16-cv-06232 (N.D. Cal., filed Oct. 27, 2016).

"We're proud of this one," Gibbs said. "The defendant put us through our paces." In April 2019, Gibbs and colleagues defeated Facebook's final motion to dismiss the case, but it took months to negotiate a deal. He said the matter gained a close following from many in the advertising industry who increasingly rely on alternative social media platforms to distribute their content, moving away from traditional television and YouTube ads.

Facebook admitted to miscalculating the average viewing time statistic but argued it was an innocent mistake that was corrected shortly after it was discovered, according to court documents.

"This conduct was unique and we were representing a rare class of business purchasers. There were three motions to dismiss and 10 discovery spats," said Gibbs. "It was difficult, and we had no single piece of evidence that was decisive. But we thought the story we were going to be able to tell in our class certification papers gave us a good chance. Still, there was risk on both sides and that drove us to the table."

On Jan. 29, 2020, U.S. District Judge William H. Alsup of San Francisco certified a class of more than 500 home mortgage borrowers -- represented by Gibbs -- who lost their homes to foreclosure after Wells Fargo & Co. erroneously denied their loan modification requests. That swiftly led to preliminary approval of an $18.5 million settlement. Final approval is set for Aug. 30.

Gibbs' suit alleged Wells Fargo knew of the error in 2015 but failed to disclose it for nearly three years. The delay caused hundreds of borrowers to suffer grave and long-lasting consequences and class members will get significant compensation, Gibbs said. Hernandez v. Wells Fargo & Co., 18-cv-07354 (N.D. Cal., filed Dec. 5, 2018).

"We started this firm six years ago, and we're really hitting our stride now," Gibbs said.

-- John Roemer