Jesse D. Miller

I have successfully represented clients in state and federal court and in arbitration, including taking numerous jury trials to verdict in Washington state court. As most civil lawsuits are resolved prior to trial, I also have significant experience in negotiating successful resolutions for my clients through mediation and other negotiation processes. But if a satisfactory negotiated resolution cannot be achieved, I look forward to representing you in the courtroom.

• Represented a community association on a large property loss claim against its property insurer. The claim related to long-term water intrusion damage at a condominium in downtown Seattle. After the association’s property insurer denied coverage for the claim, the association brought suit and asserted claims for insurance coverage, insurance bad faith, and violations of the Insurance Fair Conduct Act. After hotly contested litigation in federal court, a successful settlement was reached with the insurer agreeing to pay over $10 million to my client.
• Represented a community association for a 100-year-old building in downtown Seattle on a claim against its prior property insurers related to substantial structural issues and long-term water intrusion damage. All of the insurers originally denied the claim for insurance coverage, leading the association to file suit. Shortly after the lawsuit was filed, a successful settlement was reached, with the insurers agreeing to pay over $10 million to my client.
• Represented three plaintiffs in a two-week jury trial in Washington state court. My clients worked for a company and its owner around the time of the company’s formation and were promised ownership in the company along with other benefits in exchange for their hard work. After they worked for the company for three to six months, the owner of the company ousted them (based on specious claims surrounding some non-competition agreements), while failing to provide them with any of their promised compensation. While we tried to explore a settlement, the defendants never truly gave us the chance to avoid going to trial. At trial defendants maintained that plaintiffs were owed nothing, while plaintiffs claimed to be owed the value of their hard work. After a two-week jury trial, the jury returned a verdict in favor of our clients on all claims, including a finding that the defendants willfully withheld wages and committed securities fraud. Based on the jury’s verdict, the Court entered Judgments for over $1.1 million.
• Represented a condominium association client that asserted construction defect claims against the developer of its property. I custom-designed an out-of-court dispute resolution process that resulted in a settlement of over $25 million (believed to be the largest monetary settlement ever achieved by a condominium association in Washington state)—a settlement that was achieved without a lawsuit ever being filed.
• Represented a condominium association that needed to go through two different lawsuits—one in state court against the developer of its condominium and one in federal court against insurance companies failing to abide by the terms of their policies and Washington law—to achieve a successful result that allowed my client to do the repairs needed at its condominium.
• Represented a commercial grocery business whose vacant property was damaged by burglars. My client’s property insurer disputed that the majority of the damage was a covered loss. I worked with the client to design a strategy to achieve a quick resolution of the seminal issue in the case, which I then implemented through filing a lawsuit and an early motion for summary judgment on the key issue. The strategy worked, and my client received settlement where the insurance company provided approximately $2 million of coverage.
• My practice also consists of appellate work, as I have briefed and argued numerous issues in the Washington Court of Appeals. I achieved a successful result in the Court of Appeals on behalf of my client, a construction company suing a municipal corporation that it had done work for, when the court reversed the trial court in favor of my client. The court published this decision—Matia Contractors, Inc. v. City of Bellingham, 144 Wn. App. 445 (2008)—meaning that it may be relied upon by other courts faced with the same legal issues.