Nicholas P. Arnold

Attorney Brief

Insurance fraud, staged-accident, coverage, bad-faith, and complex claims defense for insurers and self-insured businesses.

Nick Arnold helps insurers, SIU teams, claims professionals, and self-insured businesses defend suspicious, high-exposure, and fraud-adjacent claims across Louisiana and Texas.

Nick is often brought in when a claim is suspicious, overbuilt, high-value, or positioned to create bad-faith exposure. His work includes staged auto and trucking accidents, inflated injury and property claims, misrepresentation, contractor and public adjuster fraud, construction defect, arson, and fire losses, catastrophe claims, coverage disputes, and complex first- and third-party litigation.

Nick helps clients make early, defensible decisions. He works with claims professionals, SIU teams, and business stakeholders to evaluate exposure, preserve evidence, test causation and damages theories, challenge unsupported expert opinions, develop the litigation record, and resolve disputes through negotiation, motion practice, trial strategy, or appeal.

A frequent speaker to insurance, claims, SIU, and defense organizations, Nick has presented on staged trucking accidents, fraud indicators, claims handling, catastrophic claims, social media evidence, coverage conditions, pre-existing versus traumatic injuries, and Louisiana law updates. He has served on the boards of the New Orleans Association of Defense Counsel and the New Orleans Claims Association.

Nick is licensed in Louisiana and Texas and admitted to federal courts in Louisiana and Texas, as well as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Clients turn to him for practical, claims-aware defense counsel who understands the litigation file, the claim file, the business relationship, and the pressure to make sound decisions before a case becomes more expensive than it needs to be.

Education

B.S., Business Administration, Pre-Law Concentration, Louisiana State University, 2005

J.D., Civil Law, Loyola University New Orleans College of Law, 2008

Narrative

Mr. Arnold has given the following notable presentations: Claim Negotiation for Novices, Catastrophic Claims, Ethics: Social Media, Carrier's Perspective on Hearings: Ethical Issues, Pre-Existing Versus Traumatic Injuries, Louisiana Law Update, Maximizing Profitability by Minimizing Liability Exposure, Technology and its Role in Resolving Questions of Causation, Coverage & Fraud in Property Damage Claims, Coverage Conditions in Property Insurance Claims

Clients call Nick when…

• A trucking or auto claim shows signs of staging, exaggeration, or coordinated treatment.
• A property claim involves a suspected contractor, public adjuster, arson, or catastrophe fraud.
• A coverage decision may trigger bad-faith allegations.
• Medical causation, pre-existing conditions, or late-created treatment drive exposure.
• Plaintiff’s medical treatment plans should be attacked as unnecessary, premature, or purely speculative.
• The claim file, SIU file, and litigation strategy need to be aligned early.
• A case requires defense counsel who understands both litigation risk and claims-handling realities.

Awards

• LA & TX Attorney | AV® Preeminent™ Rating

• Louisiana Super Lawyers, 2023-2026

  • Insurance Coverage

  • Business Litigation

  • Personal Injury – General

  • Defense, Employment Litigation

  • Defense, Construction Litigation

 

 

Bar, Courts & Professional Affiliations

• Claims & Litigation Management (CLM)

• Property & Liability Resource Bureaux (PLRB)

• DRI

• New Orleans Claims Association

• Louisiana Claims Association

• International Association of Special Investigation Units (IASIU)

• Louisiana Surplus Lines Association

• Louisiana Bar Association

• State Bar of Texas

• New Orleans Bar Association

Community Involvement

• Benjamin Blanchard Memorial Foundation, Co-Founder
• Saint Dominic Catholic Church
• HELP (Homeless Experience Legal Protection) Program, Firm Coordinator and Volunteer Claim and Litigation Management Alliance

Representative Work

• Obtained complete dismissal at trial on material misrepresentation in a large-loss catastrophe claim in which the insured attempted to claim a pre-loss renovation project as a hurricane loss.
• Tried and won coverage and bad faith cases for reasonable disputes over claimed losses and interpretations of insurance policies.
• Worked with motor carrier client and law enforcement to link staged accident organizer to larger scheme, obtain his cooperation, and his eventual indictment as part of an umbrella prosecution.
• Uncovered a serial arsonist before litigation and helped secure the indictment of the principal, voiding all claims against his first-party carrier client.
• Secured expert exclusion in large loss commercial first-party property litigation for multiple failures under Daubert and L.C.E. art. 702.
• Defeated class certification under the Class Action Fairness Act (“CAFA”) for alleged supply chain contamination for a large regional retailer.
• Obtained a minimal damage trial result on a claimed large loss, multi-year crop damage dispute against his utility company client.
• Obtained summary judgments for clients when plaintiffs failed to meet damages burdens or offered merely speculative future damages.