Professional Bio

Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1959, John Spadaro received his undergraduate degree cum laude from Mt. St. Mary's College, and his law degree from Fordham University School of Law. After graduating in 1986, he worked as a legislative attorney for New York City's legislative body, the New York City Council, where he served as Counsel to the Public Safety Committee and Associate Counsel to the Subcommittee on Human Rights.

In 1988 John accepted a position with Mendes & Mount, a New York firm with an international following in insurance and reinsurance matters. Over the next four years, he held primary responsibility for the defense of London-based insurers in environmental coverage cases pending in various state and federal courts. Prominent among these was the DuPont v. Admiral case, involving underlying environmental liabilities estimated at $1 billion.

In 1992 John and his wife Colleen relocated to Delaware, where he continued to represent London insurers in the largest declaratory actions in the State's history. He was among the lead trial lawyers in the North American Philips case, which was tried to a jury for nearly four full months.

John first made himself available to consumers, and hung out his shingle as a plaintiffs' lawyer, in 1999. Since then he has recovered over $22 million for Delaware's families and working men and women against insurance companies and other corporate interests. His successes include:

• Crowhorn v. Nationwide, a bad-faith PIP class action whose unprecedented settlement totaled $5 million (2003).
• A $2 million plaintiff's verdict in Rowlands v. Lai, a medical malpractice trial in which John handled the plaintiff's damages case (1999).
• A $1 million recovery in McDowell v. Harleysville, a bad-faith auto case (2005).
• The pending $1.1 million settlement in Womack v. State Farm, a bad-faith PIP class action (2007).
• The confidential settlement in Spine Care Delaware v. State Farm, in which John successfully resolved coverage claims for over 200 Delaware auto insureds (2007).
• The much acclaimed (though confidential) settlement of bad-faith PIP claims against Nationwide in Phillips v. Nationwide (1999).
• A confidential bad-faith settlement against the workers' compensation insurer Harford Mutual, and its managed care vendor Concentra, in Thomas v. Harford (2004).
• A plaintiff's verdict in Estate of Evlon, a $1 million will contest in which (for the first time in Delaware) an unsigned photocopy of a will was admitted to probate (1999).
• Other confidential settlements -- including seven-figure recoveries -- in auto, homeowners and health insurance cases.

John was elected to the Board of Governors of the Delaware Trial Lawyers Association in 2005. In 2006 he was named to America's Best Lawyers, the oldest and most respected peer-reviewed lawyer directory in the nation. He recently drafted legislation, which has since been enacted by the Delaware General Assembly, regarding standards for expert testimony in the Delaware courts. Active in youth sports, he has coached his daughter Mary's soccer teams and his son Johnny's flag football teams, while serving as both coach and manager in his local Little League.

John continues to prosecute consumer insurance claims under auto, homeowners, workers comp, health, life and other policies. He is a frequent lecturer on coverage issues in Delaware.