State Farm on Trial: The Road to December 7

2025

Case filed. Billy and Lacy Hursh of the Tulsa area sue State Farm after a denied hail damage claim. Similar suits accumulate — now more than 800 pending in Oklahoma.

Jun 23, 2026

Oklahoma Supreme Court denies State Farm's appeal of court-ordered discovery. The document production and executive deposition orders stand.

Jun 23, 2026

Oklahoma Supreme Court bars the Attorney General from intervening in Hursh. In State Farm v. Palumbo (2026 OK 51), the court issues a writ of prohibition barring enforcement of the Dec. 30, 2025 order that had let the Attorney General intervene in the Hursh case. The Attorney General filed his own lawsuit the next day (below).

Jun 24, 2026

Oklahoma Attorney General sues State Farm. The state's petition (CJ-2026-1066) is in the archive.

Aug 4, 2026

Judge Palumbo orders compliance with discovery — executive depositions and full document production — telling the parties she does "not appreciate wasting the court's time."

Aug 5, 2026

Whitten Burrage enters the Attorney General's case as outside counsel for the State (the appearance date cited in State Farm's Sept 18 motion, below). The same firm leads the Hursh and West cases. Read the entry of appearance.

Aug 20, 2026

Protective order lifted in the related West v. State Farm case (Comanche County). State Farm gets 30 days to justify keeping any material confidential — the clock that opened the first document wave, including the 31 unsealed exhibits.

Sep 1, 2026

CEO ordered to testify. At a Sept 1 hearing (docket confirmed; reported Sept 3–4) Judge Palumbo denies State Farm's motion to excuse CEO Jon Farney from deposition — the chief executive must answer questions under oath. The court also orders 31 more withheld documents disclosed and warns of sanctions over State Farm's production tactics. The same hearing took up plaintiffs' motion to strike State Farm's blanket confidentiality assertions (now set for Sept 28). Days earlier (Aug 31) State Farm filed an emergency motion for 180 more days to answer discovery. Coverage: Tulsa World, KFOR, InsuranceNewsNet, The Nation; LA County separately sues State Farm over wildfire claims.

Sep 3, 2026

Document production deadline in Hursh. State Farm's court-ordered date to complete additional production. Produced material goes to plaintiffs' counsel; it becomes public as it is filed with the court. Same day, in West: State Farm moves to extend the August 20 re-designation deadline by 30 days with a request for expedited consideration, citing 55,913 documents to re-review — withdrawn Sept 21, see below. Read the motion.

Sep 10, 2026

Contractor deposition. State Farm deposed a roofing contractor in West v. State Farm — the questioning came from State Farm’s side. Also filed in West: State Farm's reply in support of consolidating the depositions of Wensley Herbert, Thomas Moss, Kathy Ress and Scott Welsh, and its response to the homeowners' counter-motion that West not be consolidated with any other case. Read the filing.

Sep 11, 2026

Renewed Rule 13 affidavit of Reggie Whitten — West. Filed at the clerk's office (not on OSCN). A Rule 13 affidavit is the vehicle Oklahoma litigants use to tell a court they cannot yet oppose summary judgment without further discovery; State Farm's amended motion for summary judgment is in the archive.

Sep 14, 2026

State Farm’s reply on its deposition-protocol motion — West (Comanche). The 35-page filing attaches the first public excerpts of the August 28 deposition of Kathy Ress, identified in the transcript as State Farm’s vice president of operations (taken in Normal, Illinois, in the Hursh case). State Farm says plaintiffs’ counsel “repeatedly threaten[ed], interrupt[ed], and belittl[ed]” the witness and asks Judge Sheperd to enter its protocol; in the excerpts, plaintiffs’ counsel certifies three questions for Judge Palumbo and says the witness would not answer them. Ress testified she did not believe State Farm engaged in the “outcome-based claims handling” counsel described, and that the 2020 manager-review step on roof claims was added for claim-handling accuracy during Covid staffing shortages and record catastrophe volume — State Farm’s own account of the approval gate described in Part 5. The exhibit index names titles such as “FWH Playbook Draft,” “HAAG Moratorium” and “Comp Roofs” — titles only; the exhibits are not attached. Update: Judge Sheperd granted the motion at a Sept 24 hearing and adopted the protocol with “a few changes” (Sept 24, below). Read the filing.

Sep 15, 2026

Roofer subpoena withdrawn; Aug. 4 transcript lodged — Hursh. State Farm withdrew the deposition subpoena duces tecum it served on A+ Roofing Solutions on Aug. 28, “reserv[ing] the right to re-issue”; the one-page notice gives no reason. Separately, the court reporter lodged the 46-page transcript of the Aug. 4 hearing at which Judge Palumbo rendered her final order on plaintiffs’ motion to enforce and State Farm’s motion to extend scheduling deadlines — the ruling behind the current calendar. The transcript is in the court file, not on OSCN. Read the withdrawal · Read the notice.

Sep 15, 2026

"Document dispute crawls along" — NonDoc. Reporting on both cases: Judge Sheperd has ordered 800,000 pages delivered to the Wests' attorneys; the Oklahoma County motion seeks to de-designate roughly 110,000 documents now marked confidential; Judge Palumbo, at the Sept. 1 hearing: "I'm not interested in kicking this can down the road any longer." An internal State Farm message quoted in the reporting: "Each % point of difference is about 5K claims … at $15,769 avg severity or $78.8 million." Plaintiffs' counsel describes a "Fix Profit Task Force"; State Farm disputes the characterization. Read the NonDoc report · The Hail Files, Part 4: Two Trials, 800,000 Pages · Part 5: The Accenture Motion.

Sep 15–17, 2026

Executive depositions, round two. Wensley Herbert, Kathy Ress and Scott Welsh, already deposed in Hursh Aug 26–28, sit again for West in Bloomington, Illinois. Herbert’s West deposition was Sept 17. According to the homeowners, State Farm’s counsel took a break after plaintiffs showed Herbert a document marked Exhibit 133, then said on the record: “we are a little worried that there may be privileged communications that were inadvertently produced and we’re going to investigate that” — the start of the clawback fight below. The homeowners later told Judge Palumbo that all three executives’ West testimony was “starkly different” from what they said in Hursh three weeks earlier (Sept 23, below); the excerpts are redacted in the public filing.

Sep 17, 2026

Homeowners object to more time — West. Plaintiffs' response and objection to State Farm's motion to extend the re-designation deadline (clerk's office only; not on OSCN). Four days later State Farm withdrew the motion.

Sep 18, 2026

State Farm moves to disqualify Whitten Burrage — Attorney General's case (Cleveland County). In an 18-page motion with more than 90 pages of exhibits (114 pages in all), State Farm asks the court to remove the Attorney General's outside counsel — the same firm leading the Hursh and West cases. State Farm argues three things: that letting a firm with “numerous other pending contingency fee cases against State Farm” prosecute the State's “quasi-criminal” racketeering claim violates due process; that the State's contingency-fee contract with the firm was never posted on the Attorney General's website as Oklahoma's 2021 disclosure law requires, which State Farm says makes the engagement “illegal, and therefore, void”; and that Oklahoma's racketeering statute limits who may bring such a claim and keeps subpoenaed records confidential. The motion also points to campaign contributions by the firm's lawyers to the Attorney General's gubernatorial campaign, citing KFOR's Aug. 20 reporting, and quotes the Attorney General's own 2023 letter calling an earlier state contract with the firm a “back-room deal.” State Farm “vehemently denies” the racketeering claim in the same filing. These are State Farm's arguments; the Attorney General and Whitten Burrage have not yet responded on the docket. Update, Sept 22: the motion is set for hearing Nov. 9, 2026, 9 a.m., Judge Jeff Virgin (see below). Read the motion · The Hail Files report.

Sep 18, 2026

Sealed filing — West. The homeowners file their reply on a motion to compel a deposition witness's compliance with Oklahoma's deposition statute (12 O.S. § 3230(C)), apply for leave to file under seal, and Judge Sheperd grants it the same day. What was filed under seal is not public; it was filed three days before the re-designation deadline below. All three entries are at the clerk's office, not on OSCN. Update: State Farm’s Sept 22 clawback letter (below) says the homeowners attached Exhibit 133 from Herbert’s deposition to their “Reply in Support of Motion to Compel Compliance by Nancy Holcomb” after State Farm had raised its privilege concern — which appears to be this sealed reply.

Sep 18, 2026

Out-of-state counsel — Hursh. State Farm moves to admit Kathy J. Huang and Samuel J. Park of Alston & Bird LLP (Los Angeles) pro hac vice as “additional counsel of record” for the State Farm defendants; the docket notes the admission orders were signed Sept 21 and entered Sept 22. Read the Huang motion · Read the Park motion.

Sep 21, 2026

Deadline day: State Farm withdraws its request for more time — West. Judge Sheperd’s August 20 order struck State Farm’s blanket “Confidential” stamp and gave it 30 days to justify secrecy document by document; anything not re-designated by this date “is DE-DESIGNATED.” State Farm asked on Sept 3 to push the deadline to about Oct 21; the homeowners objected Sept 17; and on the deadline day State Farm filed a notice withdrawing the extension motion rather than have the court rule on it. The order stood as written. What that means: material State Farm did not re-designate is no longer protected as confidential. Re-designation is a party process, not a docket event — de-designated documents become public as they are filed with a court or released, so this page and the archive update as they surface. Read the withdrawal notice.

Sep 21, 2026

State Farm’s last word before the Sept 28 hearing — Attorney General’s case. State Farm files its reply in support of its motion to dismiss. It argues that the Oklahoma Consumer Protection Act exempts conduct already regulated by the Insurance Commissioner (15 O.S. § 754(2)) — and that the racketeering and conspiracy counts fall with it — and that the Insurance Commissioner’s constitutional authority over insurers “trumps and precludes” the Attorney General’s general authority. It attaches a transcript excerpt from an Aug. 17 hearing before Judge Natalie Mai (Oklahoma County) in the separate fight over the AG’s investigative demands to State Farm and Farmers, in which the judge found the conduct fell within the consumer-protection statute’s insurance exemption while letting the antitrust demands proceed, plus the State’s two retention agreements with Whitten Burrage. State Farm’s arguments; not ruled on. Read the reply.

Sep 21, 2026

Sealed supplement on the de-designation motion — Hursh. The homeowners apply, unopposed, to file under seal an unredacted supplement to their motion to de-designate State Farm’s documents — the motion Judge Palumbo hears Sept 28 — because it quotes exhibits still marked confidential. The docket notes the order granting leave was signed Sept 22; the order itself was filed Sept 24. The supplement itself was filed Sept 23 as a notice of supplemental authority — exhibits under seal, with a public, redacted version now in the archive (below). Read the application · Read the sealing order.

Sep 22, 2026

State Farm asks to move the West trial out of Comanche County — or push it past November. At 4:30 p.m., State Farm and the Holcomb agency move under 12 O.S. § 140 for a change of venue to a county outside Judicial District 5, or alternatively a trial setting “on a docket after November 2026.” The ground: plaintiff Neil West is a candidate for District Judge in the Nov. 3 general election, and State Farm argues a trial on the Nov. 2 jury docket would run while he campaigns to the jury pool — “jurors might literally be voting for Mr. West … on the very same day they are asked to neutrally evaluate his case” — compounded by pretrial publicity it attributes in part to plaintiffs’ counsel. The motion’s first footnote says no trial date has actually been entered: the scheduling order sets it at the Oct. 22 pretrial conference, and Nov. 2 is the homeowners’ stated expectation as the first jury term after it. State Farm also says the homeowners have not responded to its summary-judgment motion (they did Oct. 9, below) and served 11 more document requests Sept 17 (70 in all), with responses due Oct. 20. State Farm’s arguments. Judge Sheperd’s written order from the Sept 24 hearing on “various motions” (below) does not mention this motion, but the hearing transcript shows him setting it for Oct. 22 at 10 a.m., matching a second Sept 25 order docketed as setting that date (Sept 24 and Sept 25, below). The homeowners filed a response opposing the motion Oct. 12, available only at the clerk’s office (below); no ruling appears in the docket text as of Oct. 17. Read the motion · The Hail Files, Part 7.

Sep 22, 2026

Disqualification motion gets a date — Attorney General’s case. Notice of hearing: State Farm’s Sept 18 motion to disqualify Whitten Burrage is set for Nov. 9, 2026, 9 a.m., before Judge Jeff Virgin at the Cleveland County Courthouse in Norman. Read the notice.

Sep 22, 2026

December 7 holds — Hursh. Judge Palumbo enters an agreed amended scheduling order, signed by both sides: all motions including dispositive motions, and expert disclosures, by Oct. 15; motions in limine by Nov. 1; Daubert motions by Nov. 10; pretrial conference Nov. 19, 1:30 p.m.; a seven-day jury trial beginning Dec. 7, 2026, 9 a.m. Three weeks after telling the court its discovery extension “will necessarily extend beyond” Dec. 7, State Farm signed an order that keeps it. Read the order.

Sep 22, 2026

State Farm moves to claw back ‘Exhibit 133’ — West. In a letter to the homeowners’ lawyers, Timila S. Rother of Crowe Dunlevy, State Farm’s trial counsel, invokes Oklahoma’s inadvertent-production rules (12 O.S. § 3226(B)(5)(b) and § 2502(E)) to claw back WEST00158702-09 — the document marked Exhibit 133 at Wensley Herbert’s Sept 17 deposition — and a second version, WEST00158712-19. State Farm says both contain attorney-client privileged or work-product communications it “inadvertently failed to redact,” that it redacted the same material in other versions, that it is also “downgrading” some earlier redactions, and that it will re-produce the documents with corrected redactions. It asks the homeowners’ lawyers to destroy every copy and any notes or analyses based on them — including copies given to consultants and experts — to agree to strike Herbert’s testimony about the privileged portions, the deposition exhibit and the exhibit to their court reply, and to confirm by Sept 25 — a date now past, with no response in the public record. Using the document as a court exhibit after State Farm had raised its concern, the letter says, was “inconsistent with the law and the obligations of attorneys.” The letter became public as Exhibit 24 to the homeowners’ Sept 23 Hursh filing (next entry), which disputes that the material is privileged. State Farm’s position; as of Oct. 17 no ruling on the clawback appeared in the West or Hursh docket text. Update, Oct. 5: in Hursh, State Farm filed a brief asking Judge Palumbo to apply attorney-client privilege and work-product protection to HUR00158701-19, the homeowners’ Exhibit 14, which it describes as emails and drafts of an October 2021 “Senior Executive Offsite” memo (below). Read the letter (Exhibit 24, pp. 45–46 of the Sept 23 filing) · The Hail Files, Part 8.

Sep 23, 2026

The homeowners’ supplement goes public: “starkly different” testimony, a disputed privilege redaction and three more documents they want de-designated — Hursh. The homeowners file a notice of supplemental authority on their motion to de-designate — a public, redacted version, with 22 of its 25 exhibits under seal — and ask Judge Palumbo to rule at the Sept 28 hearing on three more State Farm documents: Exhibit 14 (HUR00158701-19), Exhibit 15 (HUR00039527-34) and Exhibit 16 (HUR00156099), or alternatively to review an unredacted Exhibit 14 privately (in camera). Their claims: that Herbert, Welsh and Ress gave West testimony “starkly different” from their Hursh depositions three weeks earlier, and that the West transcripts are “filled with inaccuracies and inconsistencies” (the excerpts are redacted); that Exhibit 14 is the Hursh copy of the Exhibit 133 State Farm is clawing back in West, and that it “went directly to the CEO and C-suite” — they say Herbert confirmed that “SEO” stands for Senior Executive Offsite, attended by the CEO, CFO and COO; that a passage marked “Redacted - AC” (attorney-client) in Exhibit 14 appears unredacted in Exhibit 15 and is an industry benchmark sourced to “Accenture Consulting Services,” which they argue cannot be privileged, invoking the crime-fraud exception in the alternative; and that Exhibit 16, an operations model Ress testified Accenture helped develop, reflects what they call “outcome-based claim handling to save State Farm $218-$300 million dollars on claims that have not happened yet,” including what became team-manager review of full roof replacements. (Ress testified in August that she did not believe State Farm engaged in outcome-based claims handling — see Sept 14.) The homeowners say State Farm has not yet asked to claw back Exhibit 14 in Hursh but expect it to (on Oct. 5 State Farm filed a brief asserting privilege over it, below). The filing’s index lists 24 documents still in dispute, eight of them by title — among them “Fire Claims — 2023 May Meeting,” “Homeowners Paid Severity & Incurred Pure Premium (IPP) by State,” a Haag education video on “Impact Testing and Hail Definitions” and “Email 2022-01-12 changing ‘Reduce’ to ‘Target’.” It also sets up the next step: corporate-representative depositions in Judge Palumbo’s courtroom Sept 29 and Oct 1. These are the homeowners’ characterizations of sealed documents; State Farm disputes the allegations in the case. Judge Palumbo granted the de-designation motion in part on Sept 28 (below): her minute de-designates Exhibit 16, and Exhibits 14 and 15 are not on its list. Read the notice · The Hail Files, Part 8.

Sep 23, 2026

Sullivan & Cromwell joins State Farm’s West trial team. Crowe Dunlevy moves to associate Diane Lee McGimsey of Sullivan & Cromwell LLP (Los Angeles) as counsel for State Farm; the Oklahoma Bar Association approved her out-of-state registration Sept 22. With Alston & Bird admitted in Hursh three days earlier, each of State Farm’s two Oklahoma trial teams now includes a national firm. The order admitting McGimsey was entered Sept 25. Read the motion.

Sep 24, 2026

Judge Sheperd adopts State Farm’s deposition protocol and holds off on sanctions — West. At a 3 p.m. hearing in Lawton on six motions from both sides, Judge Sheperd granted State Farm’s motion for a protective order and deposition protocol governing lawyers’ conduct at depositions (Sept 14, above): “This has been the most contentious and litigious case I’ve ever dealt with, and so I think anything we can get to keep us on the rails is beneficial, so I’m going to adopt the protective order for deposition protocol. I have made a few changes to it.” With about 20 minutes left, he asked whether to hear the homeowners’ sanctions motion or their counter motion on consolidating depositions; Hannah Whitten asked to take the counter motion, adding “whatever you want, Your Honor,” and the judge said, “I’ve kind of been holding off on any of the sanctions anyways.” His handwritten order, file-stamped Sept 25: the homeowners’ renewed motion to enforce and request for discovery sanctions is “reserved for later date,” with a “substantive meet & confer” ordered, and their motion for discovery sanctions against State Farm for “obstructive depo conduct” is also reserved; their motion to compel the Holcomb agency’s compliance with 12 O.S. § 3230(C) is granted “as to all topics but only as to knowledge reasonably available to the agency, not State Farm as a whole,” with the agent to be deposed by Oct. 7; State Farm’s motion to consolidate is moot as to Herbert, Moss, Ress and Welsh, and the homeowners’ counter motion not to consolidate is reserved for a later ruling if necessary, though the parties may agree to consolidate any deposition. The order does not mention State Farm’s motion to move or delay the trial (Sept 22, above), and the protocol itself, attached as the court’s Exhibit 1, is not online. More transcript pages, now online as Exhibit 8 to State Farm’s Oct. 9 expert-discovery motion (below), add two scheduling points: the judge said he would “set the motion for change of trial venue or later trial setting to October 22nd at 10:00 a.m.,” and Hannah Whitten told him the homeowners “want to keep our trial date the second week of November.” At the close, after State Farm’s Timila Rother noted that the homeowners wanted to depose more executives and had served 11 more document requests, he said: “We’re in a real time crunch for a November trial.” The same day the docket shows State Farm’s response to the homeowners’ second motion to compel, “filed in under seal drawer #2.” The order and the transcript excerpt are online as exhibits to State Farm’s Oct. 2 and Oct. 8 filings (below). Read the order (Exhibit 4, pp. 60–61 of the Oct. 2 filing) · the transcript excerpt.

Sep 25, 2026

The homeowners ask Judge Sheperd to reconsider the protocol and to rule fast on sanctions — West. The day after the hearing, the homeowners filed a “motion to reconsider the entry of a deposition protocol governing counsel’s conduct” and an “emergency motion for expedited ruling, without hearing,” on their “pending motion for discovery sanctions and for an order compelling the resumed deposition of” Nicole Manduca, or alternatively for an emergency hearing. Both are now available at the court clerk’s office, not online, and both are docketed as set for Nov. 19, 2026, at 10 a.m. According to State Farm, the court gave it until Oct. 2 to respond to the emergency motion and told counsel it would rule on it without a hearing by Oct. 9; the docket now shows an Oct. 13 order from Judge Sheperd on the underlying sanctions and resumed-deposition motion, available only at the clerk’s office, and the docket text does not say how he ruled (Oct. 13, below). State Farm’s Oct. 8 response says the court set a hearing on the motion to reconsider for Oct. 12; the docket shows an order on it dated that day (below). Two Sept 25 orders are on paper at the clerk’s office: the written order from the Sept 24 hearing (above) and one docketed as setting Oct. 22 at 10 a.m. State Farm opposed the emergency motion Oct. 2 and the motion to reconsider Oct. 8 (below).

Sep 25, 2026

Accenture answers the subpoena fight — Hursh. Non-party Accenture LLP opposes the homeowners’ motion to compel (Part 5). It says it “was retained to help State Farm analyze and improve its claims handling processes for several different types of insurance claims as part of State Farm’s Fire Model Enhancement,” that its wind and hail work “lasted only a few months from April to July 2020,” and that it “was not involved in some kind of conspiracy to reduce payouts to policyholders.” On the “Industry Best” benchmark the homeowners tie to Accenture, it says that analysis “was not within the scope of Accenture’s engagement.” It also argues the subpoena had to be domesticated in Illinois, where Accenture is incorporated and has moved to quash, and that most of its State Farm work product sits on State Farm’s systems. Accenture’s arguments; not ruled on. Read the response.

Sep 28, 2026

Two hearings, two rulings: 11 State Farm documents lose their “confidential” label in Hursh, and the Attorney General’s case survives the motion to dismiss. Oklahoma County, 9 a.m.: Judge Palumbo heard the homeowners’ motion to strike State Farm’s blanket confidentiality designations and de-designate the sealed exhibits — the ones they describe as showing “billions in indemnity decreases” — along with their Sept 23 request to decide Exhibits 14–16 (Exhibit 14 is the Hursh copy of the document State Farm is clawing back in West) or review Exhibit 14 in camera. The docket records the motion as “granted in part as per journal entry and court minute.” The Oklahoman reported that the judge ordered 11 of the 24 documents in dispute de-designated — the confidential label removed, so they can be referenced in open court and included in public pleadings — took the other 13 under advisement, and warned that State Farm’s “inability or unwillingness to comply with the orders of this court is putting you in very dangerous sanction territory.” State Farm’s counsel told the court: “There’s no ill will. This idea that this is all being done for delay is just not true.” The handwritten court minute names the 11: Exhibits 10, 11, 12, 15, 17 and 19 to the motion; Exhibits 4–6 and 12 to the reply; and Exhibit 16 to the Sept 23 supplement — the operations model behind the homeowners’ “$218-$300 million” figure. Supplement Exhibits 14 and 15 are not on the list (Exhibit 14 is, the homeowners say, the Hursh copy of “Exhibit 133”); the journal entry had not been posted as of Oct. 17. Read the minute. Cleveland County: Judge Virgin denied State Farm’s motion to dismiss the Attorney General’s case, The Journal Record and the Property Insurance Coverage Law Blog reported; the written order had not reached the public docket as of Oct. 17. The ruling lets the case go forward — it is not a finding that the allegations are true, and State Farm denies them. State Farm’s motion to remove the Attorney General’s outside counsel is still set for Nov. 9.

Sep 28, 2026

Two of the 11 go public in full the same afternoon — Hursh. At 4:59 p.m. the homeowners file a notice “on State Farm’s executives’ knowledge of bad faith tactics and outcome-based claim handling” with two now-public documents attached. The first, a June 2021 “P&C Claims Fire Claim Quality” report, lists among “quality indicators trending positively” that “May 2021 Total Roof to Partial Roof Replacement down from 4.1 in June 2020 to 2.3 in May 2021” and “Wind/Hail estimate payment bands over $10,000 decreased 13% YOY,” and describes “TM intervention for total roof replacements on small hail/light wind.” The second is a September 2020 “Executive Summary — Op Model,” forwarded by State Farm vice president Kathy Ress to Nicole Manduca with “Please do not forward,” whose “three ‘Landing Points’” page lists “outcome-based claim handling” and “Expense / Efficiency Aspirations” of $218M–$300M (Horizon 1, “relative to 2020 budget”) and $325M–$500M (Horizon 2). The homeowners call the deck “blatant bad faith plotting to reduce claim payouts”; the deck defines its expense and efficiency goal as “Market Leading Loss Adjustment Expense (LAE) & Operating Excellence” (loss adjustment expense is the cost of handling claims), lists “Pay What We Owe” as a separate goal and never breaks the figures down; and State Farm, in a motion filed the same minute that doesn’t address these documents, calls the homeowners’ theory false and describes its Fire Model Enhancement as “an effort by State Farm to improve the accuracy and quality of its wind/hail claim handling.” The notice also says CEO Jon Farney’s deposition “is currently scheduled to take place on October 19, 2026.” Read the notice and both documents · The Hail Files, Part 9.

Sep 28–29, 2026

State Farm moves to block another executive’s deposition — Hursh. State Farm asks for a protective order and to quash the homeowners’ Sept 21 notice to depose Michael Keating, an operations vice president, saying he “was not involved in the handling of Plaintiffs’ claims, nor did he directly supervise any person who was involved,” that executives at his level can’t be deposed without unique personal knowledge, and that the court has already ordered a 30-topic corporate deposition and eight individual depositions, the CEO’s among them. Keating’s declaration says he is responsible for fire property claims and: “I was not involved in the FME. For nearly a decade prior to June 2023, my roles involved only auto claims.” State Farm calls the Fix Profit Task Force, the subject the homeowners raised with Herbert, a group that “has nothing to do with the allegations in this case or the FME.” Two amended versions filed Sept 29 (12:01 and 2:59 p.m.) add the exhibit the first version lacked, and the second corrects a transcript citation: an excerpt of Herbert’s West deposition in which he says Keating was part of the task force (State Farm’s brief says Farney attended its meetings) and that Keating “has operational responsibilities for fire claims” — “Yes, all fire claims,” homeowners wind and hail included. Keating testified for State Farm before a U.S. Senate subcommittee on May 13, 2025, at a hearing examining insurers’ claims practices after natural disasters (his written testimony). No ruling appears in the docket text as of Oct. 17. Update, Oct. 2: the homeowners filed their opposition and a counter motion (below). Read the amended motion · the original.

Sep 29, 2026

State Farm withdraws four more roofing-trade subpoenas — Hursh. State Farm’s notices withdraw the subpoenas it issued Sept 11 to Diamond Gutter Company (deposition and records), R Turley Roofing, Republic Roofing Company and one individual roofer in Oklahoma City (deposition and records) — three dated Sept 24, one Sept 29, all filed Sept 29. Each “reserves the right to re-issue in the future, if necessary”; none gives a reason. On Sept 15 State Farm withdrew its subpoena to another roofing company in this case (above). Diamond Gutter · R Turley · Republic.

Sep 30, 2026

Another Alston & Bird lawyer for State Farm — Hursh. State Farm moves to admit Kristin A. Shepard of Alston & Bird (Washington, D.C.) pro hac vice. The motion’s signature block lists State Farm’s Hursh team: GableGotwals plus out-of-state lawyers already admitted from Sullivan & Cromwell, Redgrave LLP and Alston & Bird. An Oct. 1 docket note reads: “Order admitting to practice is signed.” The order admitting her was entered Oct. 6. Read the motion.

Sep 30, 2026

A corrected notice, and a new request to file under seal — Hursh. The homeowners filed a corrected version of their Sept 28 “notice of supplemental authority on State Farm’s executives’ knowledge of bad faith tactics and outcome-based claim handling” (Sept 28, above) and, the same day, an application for leave to file under seal. The docket does not say what was corrected; a footnote in the filing does: “The exhibit stickers were deleted when originally submitted for filing. The only correction herein are the exhibit stickers.” An order granting the sealing application followed Oct. 1, and on Oct. 2 the homeowners filed their Keating response in a public version and one “filed under seal per order filed 10-01-2026” (below). Read the corrected notice · the application · the Oct. 1 order.

Sep 30, 2026

The homeowners ask to change the deposition protocol — West. They file a “supplemental brief regarding the September 24, 2026 protective order and deposition protocol and request to modify paragraphs B(4) and C(6)” — filed on paper at the clerk’s office, so it is not online. According to State Farm’s Oct. 8 response (below), the brief asks the court to enter the homeowners’ own “Alternative Protocol” or, alternatively, to strike the presumptions in those two paragraphs and have the judge monitor the depositions of State Farm’s witnesses.

Sep 29 & Oct 1, 2026

Corporate-representative depositions in Judge Palumbo’s courtroom — Hursh. According to the homeowners’ Sept 23 filing, Wayne Stewart and Nicole Manduca were scheduled to be deposed as State Farm’s corporate representatives in Judge Palumbo’s courtroom on Sept 29 and Oct 1, with a court reporter, a videographer and a courtroom technician to project exhibits; the homeowners said they intended to use Exhibit 14 there. Manduca — whom the homeowners’ Accenture motion identifies as leader of State Farm’s Wind/Hail Fire Model Enhancement Team — testified in West in June (Part 5). FOX23 reported Oct. 1 that the homeowners’ lawyers, after deposing executives at State Farm’s headquarters in Bloomington, Illinois, “returned to Oklahoma to question more executives this week in court.” Hannah Whitten told the station the executives’ testimony “has been incredibly important to this case.” State Farm told FOX23: “Neither selectively cited documents nor portrayals of testimony from recent depositions change the truth: State Farm evaluates each claim based on the facts of the loss and the coverage purchased and pays the benefits available under the policy.” The report did not describe what the corporate representatives said; it said Whitten could not yet discuss the substance because State Farm has 30 days to designate the depositions confidential. KOKH reported Oct. 5 that two State Farm executives were deposed the previous week, and Whitten told the station that “some of that testimony will become public record.” State Farm’s Oct. 5 brief (below) says the court let the homeowners use Exhibit 14 at Stewart’s deposition “with the understanding that the material would be excised from the record should the Court uphold State Farm’s privilege claims.” The Oct. 1 court minute (next entry) orders that Manduca “must testify as a corporate representative in a non-evasive manner.”

Oct 1, 2026

‘Discovery continues to be an issue’: the court’s trial-readiness minute — Hursh. At a hearing on “Discovery, Witnesses, and media,” a handwritten court minute signed by the court and by counsel for both sides reads: “Discovery continues to be an issue. This Court ordered full and flawless compliance with production. This court has been presented with evidence of white box redactions, no meta data, no privilege log, and others.” The minute orders that Nicole Manduca “must testify as a corporate representative in a non-evasive manner” and states: “This Court expects witnesses to appear live.” On the media, the parties are to submit “briefs 10 pages or less about positions on the media” after meeting and conferring to determine what they agree on, and the minute reads: “Court put media guardrails now, and allow media potentially at trial.” The docket entry for the proceeding records that the parties “understand discovery and actions faced for continued noncompliance” and sets the briefs for “no later than 40 days from today” — Nov. 10 — with an in-person meet and confer before the deadline. News9 reported Sept. 2 that the judge was considering allowing cameras at future hearings and the trial. KOKH reported Oct. 5 on the minute’s discovery language; Hannah Whitten told the station the homeowners had “presented to the court that metadata has been removed from some of this production,” and State Farm, asked by the station about the discovery issues, said in a statement that “the characterizations by the plaintiffs’ attorneys are false.” Update, Oct. 17: State Farm has asked the judge to reconsider and stay this minute, saying the homeowners’ lawyer wrote it and presented it without State Farm’s review and that its “evidence” line rests on attorney argument; a hearing is set for Oct. 26 (Oct. 14 and Oct. 15, below). An earlier version of this entry said Judge Palumbo wrote the minute. Read the minute.

Oct 2, 2026

The homeowners answer State Farm’s bid to block Keating’s deposition — Hursh. They file their “response in opposition” to State Farm’s amended motion for a protective order and to quash the deposition notice of operations vice president Michael Keating (Sept 28–29, above), with a “counter motion for Rule 4 order” asking Judge Palumbo to rule on the briefs without a hearing under District Court Rule 4(h). Citing his Senate testimony, they say Keating “joined State Farm in 1993 as a Homeowners Claim Representative,” and that while they do not allege he personally handled their claims, he “directly and materially contributed to the implementation and oversight of State Farm’s Scheme tactics to reduce indemnity payments on roof claims.” Their Exhibit 1, an October 2023 State Farm email recapping a meeting on “Quality Slide Decks,” says the “Simplified Deck,” the “Keating Quality Deck” and an average-estimate deck were “consolidated into one new deck named ‘Fix Profit Task Force Deck,’” lists the change “Changed Target to Selection” and adds that “any reference to ‘targets’ need replaced with ‘selections’.” The homeowners argue the change shows State Farm “knew its tactics to achieve ‘target’ goals on roof claims constituted bad faith”; State Farm says Keating was not involved in the Fire Model Enhancement and that the task force “has nothing to do with the allegations in this case or the FME” (Sept 28–29, above). Filed in public and sealed versions; no ruling appears in the docket text as of Oct. 17. Read the response (public version).

Oct 2, 2026

The homeowners say State Farm produced its records stripped of metadata — Hursh. They move “to compel re-production of electronically stored information in the form defendant State Farm elected,” filed publicly in two parts and again under seal under an Oct. 2 sealing order. “State Farm has produced 156,748 files to date. Approximately ninety percent of them are flattened PDF renderings carrying substantially no native file metadata,” they write, with no load files and attachments that cannot be matched to the Outlook emails they came from. Their lead example is the Oct. 26, 2021 email transmitting the “Senior Executive Offsite” memo at the center of the privilege fight (Oct. 5, below): it “names two attachments, only one of which can be located in the production,” and carries a Word draft whose legal-department comments and tracked changes “survive as pictures stripped of their authors, dates, and sequence.” “Which executives received it, in which version, with which attachments, and what followed the offsite are facts that exist only in the metadata State Farm removed,” they argue, asking the court to “hold State Farm to the form it chose”: re-production with load files and native email properties, meeting invitee and attendee logs, the native memo files from five State Farm mailboxes, a declaration from State Farm’s processing vendor, and State Farm paying for it. These are the homeowners’ claims. A supplement followed Oct. 8, filed under seal and in a public version, and on Oct. 9 State Farm moved on an emergency basis to strike it, saying its response to the motion itself is “forthcoming” (both below). Correction: an earlier version of this entry said State Farm had not responded on the docket as of Oct. 9. It did not reflect State Farm’s emergency motion to strike the supplement, filed at 4:58 p.m. that day, which first appeared in our docket checks Oct. 12. Read the motion (part 1) · part 2 · the sealing application · the order.

Oct 2, 2026

Accenture goes to an Illinois court; the homeowners ask for an immediate ruling — Hursh. The filing docketed only as “Reply” is the homeowners’ reply in support of their motion to compel Accenture to comply with their subpoena (Part 5), with a notice of what it calls Accenture’s “collateral proceeding in Illinois” and a request for an immediate ruling under Rule 4(h). “On September 23, 2026, two days before its opposition was due, Accenture also asked the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, to quash this Court’s subpoena,” they write (Accenture LLP v. Hursh, No. 2026-L-011400). They say Accenture filed a second Cook County petition against a subpoena in the Foster case (No. 2026-L-011413), that they have not been served in the Illinois proceeding and that they object to that court’s jurisdiction. Read the reply.

Oct 2, 2026

State Farm opposes a fast ruling on sanctions — West. State Farm files its opposition to the homeowners’ Sept 25 emergency motion (above). It says Manduca, “a Director in State Farm’s Property & Casualty department,” was deposed June 23 “for the entire six hours” and “was appearing as an individual witness, not a corporate representative”; that the court did not hear the homeowners’ sanctions motion Sept 24 “at Plaintiffs’ counsel’s own choosing”; and that the emergency motion “points to an upcoming November 9 trial date.” Its exhibits include the Sept 24 hearing transcript excerpt and Judge Sheperd’s written order (Sept 24, above). In Hursh, the Oct. 1 court minute orders Manduca to testify as a corporate representative “in a non-evasive manner” (Oct. 1, above). State Farm’s arguments; the emergency motion is not online. Read State Farm’s opposition.

Oct 5, 2026

State Farm asserts privilege over Exhibit 14, drafts of a 2021 ‘Senior Executive Offsite’ memo — Hursh. State Farm files a “brief in support of application of attorney-client privilege and work product protections to HUR00158701-19” — the homeowners’ Exhibit 14 (Sept 23, above). “This dispute concerns limited redactions in a group of emails and drafts totaling 19 pages,” it begins: two email chains and two versions of a draft memo, “P&C Fire Claims Roofs — Quality & Service,” dated Oct. 26, 2021 and prepared “for a Senior Executive Offsite meeting.” State Farm says it has produced the memo and all nonprivileged portions, and that its redactions cover its lawyers’ advice, the requests for it and messages relaying it: on Oct. 22, 2021, Scott Welsh, a State Farm Director of P&C Claims Consulting, sent the draft to Tim Marron, then a State Farm in-house attorney — at a time when wind and hail litigation was pending — and “asked counsel to evaluate the legal implications of language used in the draft to describe those practices.” On Oct. 26 Welsh sent four colleagues a revised draft that still showed attorney comments and a margin comment conveying what the “Law Department recommends.” Welsh’s declaration says he “implemented the Law Department’s legal advice to reinforce and more accurately describe within the SEO Memo claim handling expectations and State Farm standards.” Calling the homeowners’ use of the document “egregious,” State Farm asks Judge Palumbo to uphold the redactions; strike the homeowners’ Sept 23 notice and have it refiled without the privileged material; strike the related part of Wayne Stewart’s Sept 29 deposition testimony and the exhibit; order all copies returned or destroyed; and, if she finds any redaction is not privileged, stay that ruling so State Farm can seek interlocutory review. The brief says State Farm redacted the same content in three versions of the memo produced in Foster v. State Farm, gave the court unredacted copies for private (in camera) review on Sept 30, and sent its formal clawback letter in Hursh on Sept 29. The homeowners say the redacted passage is an Accenture industry benchmark that cannot be privileged, and invoke the crime-fraud exception in the alternative; State Farm cites courts holding that bad-faith denial of an insurance claim is not fraud for that purpose. The homeowners’ Oct. 8 supplement (below) says State Farm produced the same draft twice, redacted two different ways. State Farm’s Oct. 9 motion to strike (below) says the court “is currently determining whether the materials are privileged.” No ruling appears in the docket text as of Oct. 17. Read State Farm’s brief · The Hail Files, Part 8 · The Hail Files, Part 10.

Oct 5–6, 2026

More lawyers: Gibson Dunn for Accenture, Nix Patterson for the homeowners — Hursh. Non-party Accenture moves to associate Douglas Fuchs of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP (Los Angeles), with Foliart, Huff, Ottaway & Bottom as local counsel; on Oct. 6 Lloyd “Trey” Duck and Andrew Pate of Nix Patterson, LLP enter their appearance “as counsel of record for Plaintiffs, Billy and Lacy Hursh.” Also on Oct. 6, the order admitting Alston & Bird’s Kristin A. Shepard for State Farm was entered (Sept 30, above). Read the motion · the entry of appearance.

Oct 6, 2026

The homeowners subpoena a State Farm expert — Hursh. A notice of deposition subpoena and subpoena duces tecum: the homeowners will depose an expert witness retained by State Farm on Oct. 20 at 9:30 a.m. in Tulsa, and ask for the file “relied upon in preparing your expert report and opinions,” billing records and documents relating to “any contract between you and Defendant State Farm.” An affidavit filed Oct. 8 says the subpoena was served in person Oct. 5. Read the notice.

Oct 7, 2026

A hearing set for Oct. 12, page-limit requests on summary judgment, and a sealing order — West. The Comanche County docket shows a notice of hearing set for Oct. 12, 2026, at 3 p.m. — on the homeowners’ motion to reconsider the deposition protocol, according to State Farm’s Oct. 8 response (below); two homeowners’ motions, both docketed as opposed, for leave to exceed the page limit in responding to State Farm’s amended motion for summary judgment and to the Holcomb agency’s motion for summary judgment, set for Nov. 19 at 10 a.m.; and a homeowners’ application to file under seal, which Judge Sheperd granted the same day. None of these filings is viewable online. Judge Sheperd allowed the extra pages Oct. 9 (below).

Oct 7–8, 2026

The homeowners’ expert: one email produced five ways, one draft redacted two ways — Hursh. The homeowners file an unopposed application to file their supplement on the metadata motion (Oct. 2, above) under seal; Judge Palumbo grants it Oct. 8, and a public version, with its seven exhibits under seal, is now on the docket. It reports what an e-discovery expert from the firm Avansic found in “twenty-three produced renderings of a single October 2021 email family” — the Senior Executive Offsite memo family (Oct. 5, above). The homeowners say State Farm produced one email in that family “under five separate production identifiers” and Welsh’s 5:43 p.m. Oct. 26 email sending the memo under four more; that the copies show “at least three distinct, identifiable processing toolchains”; and that one copy of Welsh’s email “renders a different recipient line” than the others. They say State Farm also produced the same draft twice — at HUR00158702-709 and HUR00158712-719, which State Farm calls two versions — with redactions that “do not match”: the expert found the copies “differ on each of their first seven pages, across approximately seven percent of the pixels on each page,” and the homeowners argue that “Read together, the two productions disclose most of what each withholds separately.” Their example is a bullet they say is covered at HUR00158702 by a box reading “Redacted – AC,” next to a comment balloon, itself redacted there, reading “Law Department recommends.” The filing quotes the bullet in full, saying it was produced unredacted “ten Bates numbers later in the same production” and in an earlier version of the document: “Industry Best: Industry Best FRR on light wind and small hail averages a 5-10% frequency, therefore an internal quality improvement opportunity of 53-58% for light wind and 80-85% for small hail (Source: Accenture Consulting Services).” (The filing does not spell out “FRR.”) The homeowners also say State Farm’s privilege logs “do not log any of the attorney client redactions subject to Exhibit 133” (the West deposition-exhibit number they also use for this document), and that they “intend to use” it at CEO Jon Farney’s Oct. 19 deposition. They ask the court to rule it is not privileged, to strip its confidentiality designation, and to order re-production with metadata. These are the homeowners’ claims. State Farm says its redactions protect legal advice and that it produced the versions at HUR00158702-09 and HUR00158712-19 with incomplete redactions by mistake (Oct. 5, above); its brief does not address the earlier version. Accenture has said the kind of analysis underlying the “Industry Best” benchmark “was not within the scope of Accenture’s engagement” (Sept 25, above). State Farm moved Oct. 9 to strike the supplement (below). No ruling appears in the docket text as of Oct. 17. Read the public supplement · the sealing application · the order.

Oct 8, 2026

State Farm defends the deposition protocol before the Oct. 12 hearing — West. State Farm’s trial counsel at Crowe Dunlevy files a “response and opposition” to the homeowners’ motion to reconsider and their Sept 30 supplemental brief. It says the court “entered State Farm’s proposed Protocol with two minor edits”: paragraph C(6), which makes violations of the protocol’s conduct rules “prima facie evidence” that a deposition is being conducted in bad faith or to unreasonably annoy, embarrass or oppress, now requires the parties “to get Court permission prior to terminating” a deposition on those grounds; and if deposition time is used unreasonably, “the Court will provide additional depo[sition] time.” State Farm says the homeowners first argued the court had no authority to enter any protocol, then asked it to enter their own “Alternative Protocol”; it calls that proposal “self-serving,” says it would “retroactively condone” what State Farm calls their counsel’s misconduct at Nicole Manduca’s June deposition, and calls the dispute “effectively moot” because the only depositions left in the case are the experts’ and “the four-hour deposition of Jon Farney,” State Farm’s CEO. The homeowners’ motion, as State Farm quotes it, says the question is “whether the examination broke down because counsel was abusive or because the witness would not answer.” The brief says the court has set a hearing on the motion for Oct. 12. State Farm’s arguments; the homeowners’ motion and brief are not online. Read State Farm’s response · Exhibit 1, the Sept 24 transcript excerpt.

Oct 9, 2026

State Farm moves to strike the homeowners’ metadata supplement — and asks for fees — Hursh. At 4:58 p.m. State Farm files an “emergency motion” to strike the homeowners’ Oct. 8 supplement (above) and its exhibits. It says that once it notified the homeowners that the versions of the draft memo at HUR00158702-09 and HUR00158712-19 contain privileged material, Oklahoma’s discovery code, 12 O.S. § 3226(B)(5)(b), required them to “return, sequester, or destroy” those materials and barred them from using or disclosing them “until the claim is resolved.” Instead, it says, they filed the materials with the court and gave them to a retained expert — “the third time Plaintiffs filed or tried to use the same disputed document after notice” — and filing under seal “does not cure the violation.” (The same provision, as quoted in the motion, also lets a notified party “promptly present the information to the court under seal for a determination of the claim.”) The motion, State Farm says, “does not require the Court to resolve State Farm’s privilege claims.” It asks the court to strike the supplement and every exhibit “containing, quoting, describing, or relying on” the disputed materials, bar their further use until the privilege ruling, have the homeowners identify everyone who received them and instruct their expert not to rely on them, and award State Farm its fees and expenses as a sanction. In a footnote it says its response to the metadata motion itself is “forthcoming” and that the supplement “establishes little more than that Plaintiffs paid their expert to compare approximately three near-duplicate PDFs.” State Farm’s arguments; the homeowners dispute that the material is privileged (Sept 23, above), and their supplement asks the court to rule that it is not. A notice of hearing State Farm filed Oct. 12 set the motion for Dec. 17, 2026, at 10 a.m., after the Dec. 7 trial date; an Oct. 15 court minute sets State Farm’s “emergency motions” for Oct. 26 (below). As of Oct. 17 no response from the homeowners and no ruling appeared in the docket text. Read the motion · the notice of hearing.

Oct 9, 2026

One CEO deposition for both cases, with a document search first — Hursh and West. Judge Palumbo enters an agreed order: CEO Jon Farney will sit for a single four-hour deposition that the parties agree will count in both Hursh and West, to be completed Oct. 19 in Bloomington, Illinois, or on another date the parties agree to, and the lawyers may ask about his personal knowledge of “all issues relevant to the claims and defenses” in both cases. (Judge Sheperd had allowed the deposition in West on Aug. 14, limited to four hours and to the Fire Model Enhancement, the Fix Profit Task Force and information on those subjects that earlier witnesses had not fully covered.) State Farm agrees to a targeted search for wind and hail documents and communications including Farney about the Fix Profit Task Force, the Fire Model Enhancement and Senior Executive Offsite meetings, to be produced a week before the deposition, and to forgo further motion practice or appeals over the deposition, while reserving its objections to relevance and admissibility. The homeowners agree not to challenge State Farm’s “confidential” designations on those documents until the deposition is over; no general de-designation order will apply to them, and their use is frozen during any appeal of a de-designation ruling. A confidential designation does not by itself justify filing one of those documents under seal; a party must first get the court’s permission. Read the order.

Oct 9, 2026

State Farm presses for the homeowners’ expert disclosures — or their exclusion — West. At 4:53 p.m. State Farm renews a December 2025 motion to compel and asks for expedited relief: within three business days the homeowners should fully answer its interrogatory on expert witnesses, produce their experts’ materials and give dates to depose the experts before discovery closes Oct. 22 — or, alternatively, the court should exclude expert evidence not timely disclosed and any expert not made available for deposition in time. State Farm says the homeowners’ witness lists named insurance and bad-faith experts, an economics expert and a roofing expert, switching roofing experts in June, but give only “names and broad subjects,” and that despite requests on Sept 14 and Sept 30, “To date, Plaintiffs have provided neither supplementation nor deposition dates.” It adds that the homeowners “insist this case is going to trial on November 9, 2026.” At the Sept 24 hearing, according to transcript pages attached to the motion, Hannah Whitten said the homeowners had identified their experts on witness lists and in discovery — “It’s state court. We don’t have to provide expert reports” — and that “plaintiffs have been totally up front about the experts they intend to use in this case.” State Farm’s arguments; no ruling appears in the docket text as of Oct. 17.

Oct 9, 2026

The homeowners answer both summary-judgment motions, under seal — West. The homeowners file responses opposing State Farm’s amended motion for summary judgment and the Holcomb agency’s motion for summary judgment, and Judge Sheperd enters an order allowing extra pages for the summary-judgment briefing (the page-limit requests, Oct. 7, above). On Oct. 12 the docket lists corrected versions of both responses and records the responses filed in the court’s under-seal drawer — six envelopes for the response to State Farm, five for the response to the Holcomb agency. None of these filings is viewable online.

Oct 12, 2026

An order on the deposition protocol, and the homeowners oppose moving the trial — West. On the day a 3 p.m. hearing was set on the homeowners’ motion to reconsider the deposition protocol (Oct. 7 and Oct. 8, above), the docket shows a court order from Judge Sheperd “re: motion to reconsider the entry of deposition protocol.” The order is at the court clerk’s office, not online, and the docket text does not say what it decides. The same day the homeowners filed their response opposing State Farm’s motion to change venue or set the trial after November (Sept 22, above), also available only at the clerk’s office. That motion is set for hearing Oct. 22 (below).

Oct 13, 2026

A newspaper asks to film the trial — West. The Lawton Constitution, a nonparty, asks Judge Sheperd for permission under the district’s Rule 25, which bars cameras and recording devices in courtrooms “except as expressly permitted by the individual Judge,” to photograph, record and broadcast public portions of the jury trial, including opening statements, testimony, closing arguments and the announcement of the verdict. Its proposed protocol allows one still camera, one fixed video camera and two media representatives, with no coverage of jurors or jury selection and the court free to stop coverage at any time. The newspaper says it “understands trial is scheduled for November 9, 2026, subject to the Court’s current setting,” and that it does not represent that any party has consented. In Hursh, Judge Palumbo has ordered briefs on the media, due Nov. 10 (below). Read the application.

Oct 13, 2026

An order on the homeowners’ sanctions motion — West. The docket now shows an Oct. 13 “court order on plaintiff’s motion for discovery sanctions & for order compelling the resumed deposition of Nicole Manduca” by Judge Sheperd, the motion the homeowners’ Sept 25 emergency motion asked him to decide without a hearing (Sept 25, above). It first appeared in our Oct. 17 docket check; it is available only at the court clerk’s office, and the docket text does not say how he ruled.

Oct 14, 2026

State Farm asks Judge Palumbo to reconsider and stay the Oct. 1 minute — Hursh. At 5:07 p.m. State Farm moves to reconsider the Oct. 1 minute order (above) and to stay it until the motion is decided and State Farm “has exhausted its remedies for review by appellate courts.” It challenges the extension of its corporate representative’s deposition “for an undefined period ‘beyond 6 hours,’” which it says no good cause supports; the order of “full and flawless compliance with production,” which it calls “a subjective standard inconsistent with settled law”; and the statement that the court “has been presented with evidence of white box redactions, no meta data, no privilege log, and others,” which it says rests on “unproven arguments by Plaintiffs’ counsel,” not evidence. It says the homeowners’ lawyer Hannah Whitten wrote the minute and presented it to the court “without allowing State Farm’s counsel to review it,” even though it contained a “no privilege log” statement the homeowners’ counsel had already retracted at the hearing, and that the court “acknowledged an absence of knowledge about metadata” and said it would “defer that metadata issue” for briefing. Its exhibits include transcripts of the two Oct. 1 hearings. In the first, after asking the witness how many times she had been deposed (“Six times”) and had testified at trial (“Never”), the judge said: “It is the opinion of this Court that this is absolutely evasive behavior. It is a complete frivolous waste of this Court’s time, and it is meant to derail this proceeding, and it’s not going to be allowed,” and found “good cause shown for grounds for this deposition to not be limited to six hours.” State Farm says the witness properly rejected counsel’s “misreading” of a State Farm chart. In the second hearing, the judge said: “All parties shall comply. … Get it together and make sure that this case is labeled a priority. Because this is nonsensical and unnecessary and is going to come to a screeching halt. If that landing place is sanctions, there are severe ones that are available to this Court.” The same transcript shows Whitten telling the judge, “I did prepare a minute order,” and the judge reading it aloud in court and adding “within 40 days.” The motion’s claims are State Farm’s arguments; the homeowners’ response is due Oct. 19, and the motion is set for hearing Oct. 26 (Oct. 15, below). Read the motion and the transcripts.

Oct 14, 2026

State Farm asks to keep most of one de-designated exhibit confidential — Hursh. State Farm moves to partially reconsider the Sept 28 de-designation order (above) as to one of the 11 documents, Exhibit 12 to the homeowners’ reply (HUR00061156-76), asking that pages 3 through 21 stay confidential. It says they contain “detailed, relatively recent reinspection data and trends and forward-looking strategic information and reports prepared in mid-2025 that would cause competitive harm if disclosed today,” and that the homeowners would still be able to use the exhibit in depositions, briefs and hearings. It says it disagrees with the de-designation of all 11 documents but is asking the court to revisit only these pages. State Farm’s arguments, supported by a declaration from a State Farm employee; no response or ruling appears in the docket text as of Oct. 17. Read the motion.

Oct 15, 2026

Summary-judgment motions on deadline day — Hursh. On the dispositive-motion and expert-disclosure deadline set by the Sept 22 agreed amended scheduling order, which also requires all motions to be set and heard before the Nov. 19 pretrial conference, State Farm moves for partial summary judgment on the homeowners’ claims for bad faith, punitive damages and constructive fraud/negligent misrepresentation. It does not seek judgment on their breach-of-contract claim; it says discovery shows their petition “reduces to a weak breach of contract claim about the extent of hail damage.” It argues that a “legitimate dispute” over the damage bars a bad-faith claim under Oklahoma law, that its inspector was on the roof within four days of the claim, and that, under the law of the case, the homeowners’ theory of a corporate scheme to deny roof replacements is “untethered” to the facts, citing the Oklahoma Supreme Court’s June 23 opinion that blocked the Attorney General’s intervention in the case (2026 OK 51; Jun 23, above), which it says bars litigating corporate “issues untethered to the Hurshes’ actual loss.” A footnote says the homeowners will be deposed Oct. 22 and 23 and reserves the right to supplement the motion. The co-defendant State Farm agent and his agency separately move for summary judgment on the negligent-procurement, constructive fraud/negligent misrepresentation and punitive-damages claims against them, arguing that the homeowners received the replacement-cost policy they asked for and that State Farm, not the agency, decided both of their claims. These are the defendants’ arguments; the homeowners had not responded as of Oct. 17. Neither motion is in the archive: their exhibits include the homeowners’ personal and financial records.

Oct 15, 2026

A scheduling minute sets an Oct. 26 hearing — Hursh. A handwritten court minute from a hearing on scheduling, signed by the court and by counsel for both sides, gives the homeowners until Oct. 19 to respond to “State Farm’s motion to Reconsider or stay and emergency motions” and State Farm until noon Oct. 23 to reply, and says: “These motions are set October 26, 2026 at 10 a.m.” A struck-through passage would have set Oct. 19 for State Farm’s response to the “ESI Motion” and Oct. 23 for the homeowners’ reply. The minute refers to an attached Oct. 15 email that is not part of the filed copy, and it does not mention the Dec. 17 setting of State Farm’s emergency motion to strike (Dec. 17, below). Read the minute.

Oct 19, 2026

CEO Jon Farney’s deposition — Hursh and West. One four-hour session for both cases in Bloomington, Illinois, under the Oct. 9 agreed order (above), unless the parties agree on another date; State Farm’s production of wind and hail documents and communications involving Farney on the Fix Profit Task Force, the Fire Model Enhancement and Senior Executive Offsite meetings was due a week earlier, Oct. 12, if the date holds. The homeowners say they intend to use the newly public documents at the depositions, and their Oct. 8 supplement says they “intend to use” the Senior Executive Offsite memo at this one. A State Farm declaration says Farney “did not attend FME meetings.” State Farm’s Oct. 8 brief in West says the CEO’s four-hour deposition and the experts’ are the only depositions left in that case.

Oct 19, 2026

Hursh: the homeowners’ responses due to State Farm’s motion to reconsider or stay the Oct. 1 minute and its “emergency motions,” under the Oct. 15 court minute (above).

Oct 20, 2026

Deposition of a State Farm expert — Hursh, 9:30 a.m., Tulsa. Notice filed by the homeowners Oct. 6 (above), with a subpoena for the expert’s file, billing records and any contract with State Farm.

Oct 22, 2026

Pretrial conference and venue hearing — West (Comanche County). Under the scheduling order the trial date is formally set at the pretrial conference, and the Sept 24 hearing transcript shows Judge Sheperd setting State Farm’s motion to move the trial or set it after November for 10 a.m. the same day, matching a Sept 25 order docketed as setting Oct. 22 at 10 a.m.; the homeowners opposed the motion Oct. 12. State Farm’s Oct. 9 motion says discovery closes Oct. 22.

Oct 22–23, 2026

The homeowners’ depositions — Hursh. State Farm’s Oct. 15 summary-judgment motion (above) says the homeowners will be deposed Oct. 22 and 23; it says the defendants noticed their depositions in March for dates in early April and the homeowners moved to quash them and sought to delay them until after State Farm’s representatives were deposed.

Oct 23, 2026

Hursh: State Farm’s replies due by noon under the Oct. 15 court minute (above).

Oct 26, 2026

Hearing on State Farm’s motion to reconsider or stay the Oct. 1 minute and its emergency motions — Hursh, 10 a.m. Before Judge Amy Palumbo, set by the Oct. 15 court minute: “These motions are set October 26, 2026 at 10 a.m.” The minute does not list the emergency motions by name; State Farm’s emergency motion to strike the homeowners’ metadata supplement (Oct. 9, above) had been noticed for Dec. 17 (below).

Nov 1, 2026

Nov 3, 2026

General election. Plaintiff Neil West is on the ballot for District Judge, Judicial District 5, Office 1 (Comanche, Cotton, Jefferson and Stephens counties) — the fact State Farm’s venue motion turns on. This page takes no position on any candidate.

Nov 9, 2026

TRIAL (expected setting) — West v. State Farm. Comanche County District Court, Judge Grant Sheperd (CJ-2025-135). At the Sept 24 hearing the homeowners’ counsel said they “want to keep our trial date the second week of November”; State Farm’s Oct. 9 motion says they “insist this case is going to trial on November 9, 2026,” and The Lawton Constitution’s Oct. 13 application says it understands trial is scheduled for that date “subject to the Court’s current setting.” No trial date appears in the docket text: under the scheduling order it is set at the Oct. 22 pretrial conference, and State Farm’s Sept 22 motion had described Nov. 2, the first jury docket after that conference, as the homeowners’ expectation. Contested: that motion asks the court to move the trial to another county or set it after November 2026, citing the plaintiff’s Nov. 3 judicial election; the homeowners opposed it Oct. 12, it is set for hearing Oct. 22, and no ruling appears in the docket text as of Oct. 17. Summary-judgment motions by State Farm and the Holcomb agency are pending; the homeowners filed their responses Oct. 9 (sealed copies docketed Oct. 12). The case whose lifted protective order produced the 31 unsealed exhibits.

Nov 9, 2026

Hearing on State Farm’s motion to disqualify Whitten Burrage — Attorney General’s case. 9 a.m., Judge Jeff Virgin, Cleveland County Courthouse, 200 S. Peters Ave., Norman. The motion argues due process, the unposted contingency contract and the racketeering statute’s limits (Part 6); the Attorney General and the firm had not responded on the docket as of Oct. 17.

Nov 10, 2026

Hursh: Daubert motions due (challenges to expert witnesses), per the amended scheduling order — and the deadline for the parties’ briefs on the media, due “no later than 40 days” after the Oct. 1 hearing (Oct. 1, above).

Nov 19, 2026

Motions setting — West (Comanche County), 10 a.m. The homeowners’ Sept 25 motion to reconsider the deposition protocol, their emergency motion over discovery sanctions and Nicole Manduca’s resumed deposition, and their Oct. 7 motions to exceed the page limit in responding to the summary-judgment motions are docketed as set for this date, though the court entered an order on the protocol motion Oct. 12 and one on the sanctions and resumed-deposition motion Oct. 13, and allowed the extra pages Oct. 9 (above).

Nov 19, 2026

Pretrial conference — Hursh v. State Farm, Oklahoma County, 1:30 p.m. — now entered by the Sept 22 agreed amended scheduling order; the agreed pretrial order is due to the court a week earlier.

Dec 7, 2026

TRIAL — Hursh v. State Farm. Before Judge Amy Palumbo, Oklahoma County District Court — State Farm executives expected to testify under oath about the wind and hail initiative, with 800+ pending cases watching. Confirmed: the agreed amended scheduling order entered Sept 22 — signed by State Farm’s counsel — sets a seven-day jury trial beginning Dec. 7 at 9 a.m., three weeks after State Farm had told the court its discovery extension “will necessarily extend beyond” that date.

Dec 17, 2026

Noticed hearing date for State Farm’s emergency motion to strike the metadata supplement — Hursh, 10 a.m. Before Judge Amy Palumbo, Room 809, Oklahoma County Courthouse, according to State Farm’s Oct. 12 notice of hearing (Oct. 9, above) — ten days after the trial is set to begin. The Oct. 15 court minute sets State Farm’s “emergency motions” for Oct. 26 (above) and does not say whether this setting stands.