A South Texas attorney was indicted on 16 counts of insurance-related fraud after an investigationalleged he filed numerous roof hail damage lawsuits against insurers onbehalf of homeowners he never met.

The Tarrant County grand jury's June 5 indictment alleges thatRichard Kent Livesay engaged in organized crime by submittinglawsuits against insurance companies between 2014 and 2016 withoutfirst getting the homeowners' consent.

Fighting insurance fraud

The case was presented to the grand jury by Doug Wallace, a TarrantCounty special assistant district attorney. He is one of sixprosecutors paid by the Texas Departmentof Insurance to work in district attorney offices across thestate to fight insurance fraud.

"You had homeowners learning they were parties to a lawsuitbrought by an attorney they had never heard of," said TDI FraudDirector Chris Davis. "When insurance fraud occurs, we're allvictims because it leads to higher rates for consumers."

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Livesay, a McAllen solo who also has an office in Arlington, didnot return a call for comment.

In 2016, Livesay agreed to a one-year active suspension of hislaw license with the State Bar of Texas after the Commission forLawyer Discipline alleged he used third parties to solicit haildamage cases on behalf of several homeowners without their consent.Livesay's suspension ends on Dec. 31, according to the agreedorder.

John Council is a reporter with TexasLawyer. Contact him at [email protected].