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Ernest E. Vargo

Ernest Vargo is chair of the firm’s Class Action Defense Team. He focuses his practice on complex commercial litigation, with emphasis on defending consumer class actions filed against the insurance industry.

Mr. Vargo has specific experience in defending and counseling insurance companies and other financial services companies regarding rate and discount practices, claims adjustment practices, commission structures, premium tax charges, refund of unearned premium, collateral protection programs, payments to third-party providers, agent relations and vanishing premium programs. He has also given speeches to the financial services industry and other professional organizations on a variety of confronting issues.

Mr. Vargo has specifically defended automobile insurance companies in class actions challenging various aspects of the claims-handling process, including the use of non-original equipment parts in preparing estimates and paying claims, the taking of betterment deductions, the exclusion of claims for alleged diminished value, the payment of interest on settlement amounts, the use of estimating software in determining actual cash value, the obtaining of salvage titles in total loss situations and the determination of prevailing auto body repair rates in the claim settlement process. He has also defended class actions based on multiple commission programs instituted by auto insurers in the sale and marketing of policies.

In addition, Mr. Vargo has defended title insurers in class actions challenging discount and other premium programs, as well as the collection of premium taxes from policyholders. He also has experience in many facets of the residential mortgage lending industry, including federal lending requirements and title insurance issues.

Mr. Vargo brings a practical, focused and results-oriented approach to the class action arena. He has defended high-profile, high-exposure class actions of critical importance to the auto insurance and title insurance industries and is in high demand as a source of considered judgment for major clients. He has successfully argued class action rulings before the Ohio Supreme Court, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and the North Dakota Supreme Court. He has also testified before a legislative committee of the New Mexico Legislature regarding collateral protection insurance issued to the lending industry.

In addition, Mr. Vargo is experienced in counseling clients and defending claims relating to virtually all aspects of the antitrust laws, including price-fixing, customer and market allocation, price discrimination and merger activity. He has defended national class actions based on alleged price-fixing in the liquid crystal display panel industry, as well as the vitamins industry. He has also defended clients in criminal antitrust cases brought by the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice and the Canadian Competition Bureau, as well as in civil antitrust investigations and proceedings brought by the Federal Trade Commission and the European Commission.

Mr. Vargo is a member of the American, Ohio and Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Associations, and is a member of the Class Action Section of the American Bar Association.