Joseph J. Hasman

Joe Hasman, a senior member of Chittenden, Murday & Novotny LLC, practiced with Peterson & Ross as an associate from 1967 to 1975 and then as a partner and member of the management and executive committees from time to time until the founding of Chittenden, Murday & Novotny, LLC in January 2003. Joe is one of the preeminent and most respected attorneys in the nation in the area of life, health and disability insurance, financial services, and managed health care representation. He has broad expertise and experience in several substantive law areas affecting his clients and their industries in addition to his extensive trial and appellate experience in several state and in federal trial and appellate courts nationally. He has handled anti-trust, class action, employment, and ERISA cases in addition to significant insurance and benefits claims litigation. He also counsels his clients in the insurance and financial services industries in claims handling, general business, commercial, employment, and regulatory matters, and also engages in professional association representation involving general business, anti-trust, commercial, employment, and litigation matters.  He holds an AV Preeminent Rating from Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review.

Joe’s experience includes trials and ADR involving securities, market conduct, pension, annuity, ERISA benefits, managed health care, insurance and ERISA claims, agent fraud, civil RICO, and a variety of general commercial and business disputes for his financial service, insurance and other industry clients. He has appeared before the Illinois Department of Human Rights, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, as well as various trial and appellate courts, to resolve employment and discrimination disputes dealing with ADEA, ADA, and Title VII claims as well as retaliatory or wrongful discharge cases.

Joe is admitted to practice and has personally handled cases in the United States Supreme Court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, all of the District Courts in Illinois, several District Courts in other states, and the Illinois Supreme, Appellate, and trial courts. Joe has been a member of the Trial Bar of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois since it was founded. He is a member of and regularly contributes to the American Bar Association and its Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section (Life Insurance Law Committee, past chair), the Association of Life Insurance Counsel, the International Claim Association (member of the Law Committee), and was the co-chair of the National Conference of Lawyers and Life Insurance Companies (co-sponsored by the American Bar Association and the American Council of Life Insurers). Joe is the founding author of the “Recent Developments in Health Insurance and Life Insurance Law” compendium of cases published annually in the American Bar Association’s Trial Tort and Insurance Law Journal and still contributes to that compendium as a co-author with his partners and associates at Chittenden, Murday & Novotny. He has lectured and conducted mock trials, seminars, and other programs for the Eastern Claim Conference, Midwest Claim Conference, Southern Claim Conference, International Claim Association, Association of Life Insurance Counsel, and other organizations which serve the financial services and life and health industries.

Joe graduated from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, (B.A., LAS) in 1964 and received his Juris Doctor from the University of Illinois School of Law in 1966. He taught undergraduate history and political science and graduate business law courses at Virginia State College in 1966 and 1967. Joe participated in the creation of the National Lewis University paralegal undergraduate program and was its first adjunct instructor teaching the litigation paralegal courses.

Joe’s experience in trials and appeals of class action, complex, or unique matters against insurance and financial services clients includes:

·         Lois L. Mansen v. MTLInsuranceCompany
          State Court, Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois

Defeated class representative’s claims of agent and insurer misconduct and deceptive practices, thereby defeating the certification of a class resulting in a dismissal.

·         Douglas D. LeClere, William Barthelmes, Individually and as Class Representatives
               v. MTL Insurance Company, et al.
          U.S. District Court, Northern District of Iowa

Defeated class certification in class action alleging misrepresentation, twisting, churning, piggybacking, and failure to supervise or prevent agent misconduct, resulting in a voluntary dismissal of the case.

·         Alma Hyde, et al. v. The Western & Southern Life Insurance Company
          State Court, Circuit Court of St. Clair County, Illinois

Kevin L. Ellis, et al. v. The Western & Southern Life Insurance Company
U.S. District Court, Southern District of Illinois

Represented insurer in defense of class actions (prior to cases being transferred to MDL) alleging that insurer racially discriminated in the sales and administration of certain life insurance products.

·         McDonald v. The Prudential Insurance Company of America
          U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois

Successfully defended insurer in class action alleging improper medical benefits determinations in ERISA context by defeating motion for class certification.

·         Thomas Burton v. MTL Insurance Company
          U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois

Favorably settled class action alleging insurer’s improper calculations and reporting of certain policyholders’ taxable gains.

·         Ki Kaden v. First Commonwealth Insurance Company
          U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois

Defeated class certification and won on the merits a suit against dental insurer claiming that insurer misrepresented benefits available to participants in insured ERISA dental plans.

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