Three days after a judge ruled that State Farm’s internal roof claim memo is a public court record, State Farm filed court papers asking that she be removed from the case.
Filed October 29, 2026. Trial set for December 7, 2026. The underlying claim is about $22,000 in roof damage.
The case is Hursh v. State Farm in Oklahoma County, case number CJ-2025-2626. On Monday, October 26, Judge Amy Palumbo ruled that the internal State Farm roof memo we wrote about this week is not privileged. Her October 26 court minute says the documents were not created in anticipation of litigation and are not protected work product or attorney-client privileged. That ruling made the memo public.
State Farm’s lawyer asked for her recusal in the courtroom that same day. On Thursday, October 29, State Farm filed the written version: a Motion to Disqualify and Request for Evidentiary Hearing.
What State Farm’s own filing quotes
State Farm’s motion argues that the judge’s impartiality might reasonably be questioned. Its proof is a list of things the judge has said in the case. The motion says that, in deciding whether an internal State Farm memo was privileged, the court compared State Farm’s executives to a group of kidnappers asking a lawyer whether they could store chloroform, zip ties, and duct tape in a safe house. The motion says the court described the in-house lawyers’ advice as telling the kidnappers, that sounds a lot like kidnapping, why don’t we call it something else.
Those are the judge’s words as quoted in State Farm’s own filing. We did not write them, and neither did the homeowners.
The motion lists more. It says the court stated that the wording of the CEO’s affidavit was intentionally done because he does not want to commit perjury. It says the court called State Farm’s culture a piece of baklava, layer upon layer of making sure State Farm is alright and insulated. It says the court told State Farm its reasons for not finishing document production have no credibility with the court.
What State Farm says, and what the homeowners say
State Farm’s position is that every litigant is entitled to a judge whose impartiality cannot reasonably be questioned, and that these statements cross that line. The company also says its roof claim practices aim at accuracy and that claims are judged on their own facts.
The homeowners’ lawyers answer that the timing tells the story. Hannah Whitten of Whitten Burrage, who represents the Hursh family and more than 900 Oklahoma policyholders in cases against State Farm, said the recusal request came only after the ruling on the memo went against the company, six weeks before trial. She told reporters, we lose discovery orders all the time, but we don’t move to recuse those judges.
No court has granted the motion. Judge Palumbo has not been removed. What happens next is a hearing, and the homeowners’ side expects the case to slow down while it is sorted out. Whitten said that once the written motion was filed, everything would go on a kind of stay for right now.
This happened to homeowners. It can happen at your house.
Start with who is actually in this fight. The Hursh family is a homeowner household in Oklahoma fighting over about $22,000 in roof damage. The firm behind them represents more than 900 Oklahoma policyholders in cases against the same carrier. These are not corporations trading lawsuits. They are families whose roofs leaked, whose estimates came back small, and who would not take the first number.
Your claim will probably never see a courtroom like this one. That is the point. The fight in Oklahoma is over the paper behind the decisions: an internal memo that measured success by a lower ratio of full roof replacements to partial repairs, and by more claims closed without payment. A State Farm reviewer objected to that scoreboard in writing. We track that scoreboard in our State Farm claims scorecard. The judge made the memo public. Three days later, the company asked the court to remove her.
Now bring it home. After Hurricane Isaias, Florida policyholders filed 68,071 claims. 14,402 of them closed without a payment. 28,458 are still open. Those numbers come from the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, and they cover every carrier writing homes in this state, not only State Farm. State Farm is the company whose internal paper ended up in a court file where the public can read it. We have seen this pattern in State Farm’s own claim documents before. The other carriers keep the same kind of score. Their paper just has not been filed in court yet.
So read your own file with that in mind. The repair offer instead of a replacement. The letter that calls storm damage wear and tear. The claim closed without a payment while the stain on your ceiling keeps growing. Each of those decisions was made by a person working inside a system, and systems keep score. If it happened to a family in Oklahoma, and it happened to thousands of families here in Florida, there is no reason it cannot happen at your house.
If your carrier’s estimate does not match the damage at your house, get a second set of eyes on it before you accept it. Call us at 800.511.2240 and tell us what happened. We will walk through the estimate your carrier sent you with you.
FAQ
Did the judge get removed from the State Farm case?
No. State Farm filed a motion asking for her disqualification on October 29, 2026. Filing a motion is not a ruling. A hearing comes next.
What is the internal roof memo?
An internal State Farm roof claim memo from October 26, 2021, filed in court in Hursh v. State Farm. Judge Palumbo ruled on October 26, 2026 that it is not privileged, so it is a public court record. Our earlier post walks through what it shows.
When is the Hursh trial?
December 7, 2026, in Oklahoma County. The homeowners’ lawyers expect the schedule to slow down while the disqualification motion is heard. The date has not been moved as of this writing.
Does this change my Florida claim deadlines?
No. For Hurricane Isaias, Florida law gives you until October 9, 2027 to give notice of a claim or a reopened claim, and until April 9, 2028 for a supplemental claim. Do not wait on an Oklahoma court case to act on a Florida deadline.