Melvin Duane Coyle

Mr. Coyle works in the firm’s litigation group, mainly defending clients in civil actions for bodily injury and large-scale property damage and economic loss claims, including commercial transportation accidents, other motor vehicle accidents, construction defect and post-construction warranty claims, contractual and tort indemnity suits, and arbitration claims.

Duane is highly experienced in the work of providing liability insurance coverage opinions to insurers and the firm’s business clients, primarily in assessing liability insurers’ “duty to defend” or “indemnify” insureds sued for construction defects and post-construction physical damage, and also for employers’ insurers’ liability for damages caused by employers’ employees, including sexual misconduct on the part of an employee.  Duane is also experienced in evaluating shared responsibility between liability insurers for the same loss under “excess-escape” and “pro rata” provisions of liability insurance policies. As well, he is experienced in litigating “uninsured/underinsured” (UM/UIM) liability claims arising out of motor vehicle accidents, residential and commercial premises liability mishaps, product liability injuries, and legal malpractice claims. Additionally, Duane handles Special Investigation Unit (“SIU”) claims on behalf of property and casualty insurers in Kansas where arson, fraud, or material misrepresentations on the part of the insured are suspected.

Duane is not only an experienced trial attorney, having tried jury cases in both Kansas and Florida, but he also maintains a steady appeals court practice. He is licensed in both Kansas and Florida.

Duane served as a research attorney to a judge of the Kansas Court of Appeals for two years after graduating law school. He then joined the Wichita law firm of McMaster and McMaster, becoming a partner in 1986. From 1988 to 1998, Duane was an associate and then shareholder/director of the Wallace, Saunders, Austin, Brown & Enochs, Chartered, law firm, working in the litigation department of the firm’s Wichita office. Immediately before joining Hinkle Elkouri, Duane worked in the Orlando office of the Ft. Lauderdale law firm of Luks & Santaniello, primarily defending commercial real estate owners/lessors in bodily injury and construction defect claims, and representing insurance companies in coverage matters.