A PREEMINENT CONSUMER attorney whose impact on our healthcare system has been major, Michael J. Bidart leads the firm's HMO Litigation and Property/Casualty Departments.

Since joining SBDE in 1986, Mr. Bidart has developed the firm's health insurance practice by successfully prosecuting bad faith disputes against insurers and HMOs.

His inexhaustible efforts culminated in 1999 with his landmark $120.5 million verdict against Aetna over its refusal to pay for care recommended by the health plan's own physicians (Goodrich v. Aetna). It was the largest jury verdict ever rendered against an HMO.

Mr. Bidart's dedication and expertise led to many earlier landmark decisions. In State Farm v. Superior Court (1996), he helped establish definitively that "unfair business practice" statutory liability applies to insurance companies in California. For victims of the 1994 Northridge earthquake he won more than $300 million. He was a key player in the California Public Employees Retirement System's decision to expand its health care benefits for women with breast cancer, and he leads the firm's effort to ensure that prostate cancer patients statewide receive proton beam therapy as a covered benefit under their insurance policies.

Mr. Bidart was recently named a Super Lawyer of 2004 by Law & Politics Magazine and Los Angeles Magazine. He has been profiled in the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer and California Lawyer Magazine, which recently recognized him as one of California's most influential lawyers. The Wall St. Journal noted in a recent article that Mr. Bidart's success in healthcare litigation helped to reignite the debate in Congress over whether patients should have the right to sue their health plans.

A well-known lecturer and keynote speaker on HMO litigation and bad faith insurance practices, Mr. Bidart has been a featured speaker for the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, Consumer Attorneys of California, American Conference Institute, The Rutter Group, the California Judges Association and many others.

Mr. Bidart currently serves on the Board of Governors of Consumer Attorneys of California and Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles, on the Board of Regents of Loyola Marymount University and as chairman of the board of Visitors for the University of LaVerne Law School.

Mr. Bidart graduated from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (B.S., 1971) and Pepperdine University School of Law (J.D.,1974).

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