Is ACCO – the Association of County Commissioners of Oklahoma – an organization that sucks tort liability insurance premiums from Oklahoma county governments that primarily benefit the law firm of Collins, Zorn & Wagner, which represents county governments in civil suits filed against them?
Donna Hardman, owner of Bar H Insurance Agency, which now covers the McCurtain County Jail for tort liability, suggested this week that the situation needs to be investigated by the Oklahoma attorney general.
“I thought the attorney general should have been called in on it last year,” she said.
She also said she has proof of abuse, including evidence that ACCO used funds to send the wife of one of the firm’s attorneys to see Oprah’s TV show being filmed as a gift to the wife.
“I’ve got the proof of it,” Hardman said.
Her claims come on the heels of the same law firm failing, in 2022, to publish four required legal notices about a November election to increase McCurtain County lodging taxes by 2 percent to finance a new hospital. The measure passed with almost two-thirds approval by voters, yet the Oklahoma Supreme Court tossed out the election because the required legal notices weren’t published.
The hospital election in 2020, which failed, shows the law firm arranged for publication of the legal notices, not the county.
Collins, Zorn & Wagner PLLC was never called to account for its 2022 mistake, which cost the county a new $30 million hospital. No claim was ever filed against the firm’s insurance.
Yet that law firm, located in the same building as ACCO offices, continues to represent the county on major litigation, as it does many other counties in the state.
The firm represented Choctaw County at trial in February, when a federal jury at Muskogee returned a $9.5 million verdict against the sheriff. A few months later, it represented the county again in a $4 million settlement related to the jail.
While she said she has no proof of it, Hardman even suggested the firm’s attorneys might actually be colluding with opposing attorneys on case settlements, especially one particular firm which seems intent on suing almost every county jail in the state over medical issues.
“I believe with all my heart they’ve worked with each other so long that they can go into one of those rooms and they can come to a good decision, and everybody can (benefit from) it,” she said.
“It’s actually a scam, is what it is,” said trust member Dick Pogue.
“Absolutely,” she responded.
“100 percent, and ACCO’s right in the middle of it,” added trust member Jason Ricketts.
“It’s more of a criminal act than probably most of the people y’all have got in this jail,” Hardman said.
District 2 commissioner Tina Foshee-Thomas said when she attends meetings that ACCO attends, the organization doesn’t sound favorable to the firm suing so many county jails, but Hardman suggested millions and millions of dollars can affect people’s behavior.
She warned the county last year about the mountain of insurance reserves – more than $10 million – that had been built up by ACCO’s insurance arm.
“All those reserves have gone into attorneys’ fees now,” she told a shocked jail trust board.
“I believe that we got so close on their case last year – wanting to know where those reserves are, tell us where the interest is, it had to go somewhere – that they put it into that.”
As did four other counties, the McCurtain County Jail lost its tort liability insurance coverage with ACCO last year and has been told it likely won’t be able to get back on ACCO insurance for three years.
The jail signed on with Bar H Insurance last year after ACCO wouldn’t renew coverage, and the jail trust voted Thursday to renew its policy beginning July 1. Commissioners will consider whether to approve the $293,308.44 year-long contract at their upcoming meeting on Monday.
ACCO is a non-profit organization hired by counties to run two self-funded insurance accounts for liability, property, and workers’ compensation claims.
ACCO was the focus of an audit in 2016 that identified many ethical and potential legal lapses following a whistleblower’s complaint.
That 2016 audit found that ACCO appeared to have a conflict of interest with the law firm with which it has close ties.
