Laura McAdams Slays the Reptile for the Journal of Insurance Fraud in America

Manning & Kass Partner Laura McAdams recently had an article on the threat of “Reptile Theory” tactics and strategies attorneys can use to defend their clients against them published in the Journal of Insurance Fraud in America. Ms. McAdams was invited to submit the piece after the journal’s editor saw a presentation she gave on the topic at a national conference. The Journal, which is a publication of the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud, accepts only a handful of articles each year.

Reptile Theory suggests that by appealing to jurors’ base “reptilian” instincts, they can be manipulated into believing they can make the community a better and safer place for all by punishing the defendants and rendering exorbitant verdicts. Reptilian tactics prime jurors to abandon legal standards of reasonableness and instead rely on raw emotion to impose impractical and even impossible standards of care. Ms. McAdams illustrates strategies that can be used at all stages of litigation to counter reptilian tactics and defuse the emotional priming they attempt to create in minds of jurors. Read the full article here.

Ms. McAdams is a partner in the Los Angeles office of Manning & Kass, where she practices on the Complex Litigation Team, which focuses on affirmative litigation cases involving insurance fraud, first and third party special investigation defense, high exposure and catastrophic personal injury matters, transportation litigation, and class action defense. Ms. McAdams’ dedication and skill in fighting fraud was recently recognized by the International Association of Special Investigation Units (IASIU), Southern California Chapter, which named her the Defense Attorney of the Year for 2018.