DeRouen Law Firm

Focus and practice areas

A New Orleans litigation firm, DeRouen Law Firm handles the defense side of insurance disputes. Its core cases involve insurance defense, insurance coverage questions, and bad faith and extra-contractual claims. That mix puts it in the middle of how carriers respond once a claim becomes a lawsuit.

The firm also takes on special investigations unit matters, known in the trade as SIU, along with insurance fraud cases. SIU teams inside insurers look into claims that raise red flags, and the legal work that follows tests whether a claim holds up. Its coverage work spans personal lines, which include home and auto, and commercial lines, which include property and casualty. In my opinion, that reach across both consumer and business policies is what keeps a small firm busy inside a single field.

What coverage and bad faith work involves

Insurance coverage disputes turn on policy language. The question in most of them is whether a given loss falls inside the terms the carrier wrote. A coverage lawyer reads the policy against the facts of the claim and argues where the line sits. This is detailed, document-heavy work that rewards close reading.

Bad faith and extra-contractual claims raise a different issue. Here the argument is about how a carrier handled a claim, and whether it met its duties to the policyholder along the way. Louisiana has its own statutes and case law on the subject, so a firm that defends these claims needs to know the state's rules well. Handling both the coverage and the bad faith side, as DeRouen Law Firm does, means one firm can follow a claim through its whole life.

The kinds of cases the firm defends

Beyond coverage work, DeRouen Law Firm defends trucking and transportation companies. These matters include tort and liability claims, and they reach into personal injury, wrongful death, and cargo loss or theft. Trucking defense is its own corner of the law. Federal safety rules apply, and a commercial vehicle claim can involve the driver, the carrier, a broker, and the shipper, so sorting out who answers for what is much of the early work.

The firm rounds out its docket with premises liability, commercial and business litigation, construction defect matters, and contract disputes. It also handles governmental relations. Construction defect cases in particular tend to move slowly, since they can pull owners, contractors, subcontractors, and their insurers into the same file. Premises liability work, by contrast, often turns on a narrow set of facts about a single site.

How the team is built

Patrick D. DeRouen founded DeRouen Law Firm in 2009 and is its managing partner. He earned a law degree from Tulane University Law School and an MBA from Loyola University, both in 1990. He was admitted to the Louisiana bar in 1991. His courtroom work runs through negotiation, mediation, arbitration, and trial in state and federal courts.

The MBA is worth a mention. Insurance defense involves business questions of cost, risk, and reserves, and a lawyer with formal business training can speak to carriers in those terms. Reserves are the funds a carrier sets aside against a claim, and the size of those numbers often drives how hard a case is fought. The about page also names Laurie L. DeArmond as an attorney at the firm.

DeRouen describes itself as a small practice where its attorneys work directly with clients. As a reviewer, I read that as a note about access. A client at a firm this size usually works with a named lawyer they can reach, and the same lawyer tends to stay with a file over its course.

Where the firm works and who it serves

DeRouen Law Firm represents insurance carriers and businesses. Its cases move through Louisiana state and federal courts, and the firm serves clients in the New Orleans metro area and across the state. New Orleans is a working port city, which puts trucking, cargo, and commercial property squarely in local practice.

Insurance defense is repeat-client work. Carriers tend to route files to counsel they already know, so a defense practice depends on steady relationships. A firm that has stayed in this niche since 2009 has had time to build them.

How the firm resolves disputes

Patrick DeRouen works a dispute through negotiation, mediation, and arbitration where a case allows, and takes it to trial when one is warranted. Mediation and arbitration can close a file faster and more quietly than a trial, while a credible willingness to try a case shapes what a settlement looks like. For an insurance defense practice, that range matters. Carriers weigh the cost of settlement against the risk of a verdict on nearly every file, and they want counsel who can handle both.

The firm keeps a narrow focus, and its public record is straightforward: a New Orleans litigation firm, built in 2009, defending insurers and businesses in the courts of Louisiana. Patrick DeRouen has practiced in the state since his 1991 bar admission, and the firm has carried his name since 2009.