Daniel Ballard, Esq.

Biography

Since graduating from Delaware Law School, Daniel Ballard has devoted his entire career to representing insureds in litigation against insurance carriers who either wrongfully deny or underpay their claims.

Dan initially took on a large caseload of Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee claims in Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania. In January of 2014, Dan won his first trial in Philadelphia’s City Hall where he obtained a jury verdict for 100% of the damages against State Farm. In that case, Dan represented a family of four whose house had sustained roof and interior damage from Tropical Storm Lee.

Dan then focused on assisting hundreds of homeowners in New Jersey after Hurricane Sandy struck the New Jersey coastline in October of 2012. At 29 years old, Dan tried and obtained a verdict in the first Hurricane Sandy flood trial in New Jersey District Court. At trial, Dan represented a family who had suffered flood damage and were underpaid by their insurance carrier, Selective Insurance Company of America. Dan was able to obtain the verdict through his cross-examination of Selective’s engineer and proving the engineer had failed to provide a prior draft of his engineer report, which ended up containing favorable findings for the Plaintiffs, in direct violation of a prior FEMA Order. Subsequent to Dan’s work during Hurricane Sandy, Dan became a named partner at his prior firm.

Aside from Dan’s trial advocacy, Dan has also had success in the Appellate Division. In 2018, Dan appealed a Motion for Summary Judgment Order to New Jersey’s Appellate Division. The appeal centered on the issue of whether or not the Court can find that an insured failed to fulfill the condition precedent of presenting damages to an insurance carrier when the insured had remediation work performed to the property, prior to the carrier’s inspection, and took pictures of the damage prior to the remediation. The Appellate Division agreed with Dan’s argument that the issue should be preserved for a jury and overturned the trial court’s decision.

Throughout his career, Daniel Ballard has represented homeowners, restaurants, condominium associations, real estate companies, gyms, hotels, department stores, churches, medical facilities, grocery stores, bowling alleys, gas stations, and other commercial businesses in breach of contract and bad faith actions. Dan stresses organization, thoroughness, punctuality, and communication in working a case towards a successful outcome for his clients.

To learn more about insurance claim disputes from Dan, read his blog post contributions to the Merlin Law Group Blog here.