Scott Margraves started his second career as a full-time expert witness in 2020, backed with over thirty-three years commercial property & casualty insurance experience. Mr. Margraves has been retained as an expert witness in over 30 cases in both state and federal courts. He works with plaintiffs and defendants on cases he believes in. Case assignments are divided roughly 55% for Defense and 45% for Plaintiff, including Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Louisiana, New Mexico and Texas. He is an insurance industry expert that brings extensive experience in all aspects of property & casualty insurance interpretation, policy forms, applications, claims, safety programs, and contract integration. He is familiar with standard of care, bad faith, agency E&O, marine, pollution, transportation, surety & bonds, CYBER, and Certificates of Insurance. Mr. Margraves is well-versed in the placement of insurance policies from an insured’s perspective. As a front-line producer, he weathered forty-three (five major) hurricanes, three “five-hundred-year” floods and multiple catastrophic fire claims. Agency roles included insurance broker, claims supervisor, marketing, agency partner, and risk manager. He is the Principal Consultant and Founder of Gulf Coast Risk Management, LLC (GCRM). GCRM provides consulting services to attorneys, property owners, asset managers, and general contractors regarding insurance placement, interpretation, and recommended contractual insurance requirements while explaining the relationship and alignment with indemnity and insurance provisions. GCRM provides research, analysis and advice to commerce, industry, government and individuals. He is Past President of the Independent Insurance Agents of Houston, Past Vice Chairmen of IIAT IMPACT Region 10, Member of Insurance Academy, and Lifetime Committeemen for the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo and currently serves as a Board Member for the American Association of Insurance Management Consultants. Margraves operates COIs R Us, a certificate of insurance (COI) compliance and tracking company. COIs R Us compares the contractual obligations of an agreement with the COI. COIs R Us processes thousands of COIs for landlords and general contractors for compliance annually.

Margraves’ customer portfolio includes contractors, churches, schools, distributors, oil & gas risks, recyclers, property owners, marinas, non-profits, manufacturers and attorneys. Scott is an expert in working with clients for finding the best solution at the ideal price points for their insurance needs and contract integration for insurance purposes.

Margraves is Past President of the Independent Insurance Agents of Houston. The Independent Insurance Agents of Houston (IIAH) is a local non-profit trade association of Houston area independent insurance agencies and affiliate companies. Chartered by the State of Texas in 1924, IIAH is recognized as the largest local independent insurance agents association in the United States, representing more than 245 member agencies and affiliate companies that include over 6,000 individual members.

A native Houstonian, Scott graduated from Texas A&M University with Bachelor of Science Degree in Economics- all the while clerking at a law firm specializing in contract and commercial law. This abstract theory based degree instilled a “think outside the box mentality”, and to always account for that additional variable in every equation. After college, he worked as a Legislative Assistant to several Congressmen in Washington, D.C. This level of experience has proved invaluable throughout his career – Scott has leveraged his work in the legal and political arenas to better adapt himself to addressing the risk management solutions for his clients through conversation, asking the right questions, and most importantly listening for the real need.

Scott  is also a member of the folowing groups