J. Steve Mostyn

In February 2017, Mostyn brought three hail lawsuits in Potter County, Texas, against State Farm Lloyds. Mostyn lost all three cases.

HB 1774 is a Texas state bill signed into law "aimed at ending weather-related lawsuit abuse" that took effect on September 1, 2017. Immediately before HB 1774 took effect, Mostyn used social media and the news to encourage homeowners to file claims for Hurricane Harvey before September 1.

In a March 2017 hearing about HB 1774 before the Texas House Insurance Committee, one of Mostyn's lawyers testified to legislators that "nobody, even her law firm, likes storm-chasing attorneys." Only weeks prior, however, Mostyn's firm set up a booth with the Abagados Manuel Solis immigration law firm at a San Antonio flea market "hustling for clients" for hail lawsuits. The SE Texas Record obtained photos of the booth with fliers that read, "WARNING: Affected by Hail? If you filed a claim and it was not enough, if you never made a claim … Do not settle for it! We could possibly help you! Trust the one who knows how to win!"

In an April 2017 news article titled "The Steve Mostyn Comedy Show Continues", the Southeast Texas Record called Mostyn a "soliciting-challenged, client-inventing, and claims-inflating gouger of the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association." The article was referring to a legislative hearing held in the Texas House of Representatives in 2010 on the issue of barratry. At the hearing, Mostyn had recommended that prosecutors should take on legal "swindlers."

Mostyn died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head on November 15, 2017.

In 2014, Mostyn, who usually contributes to Democratic candidates, gave a large contribution to a police-affiliated political action committee that was donating money to Republican primary candidates. Mostyn wanted to defeat Tea Party-affiliated freshman Congressman Matt Schaefer, a Republican from Tyler, Texas. When asked, Mostyn's spokesman said Mostyn was interested in the race because he is from Tyler.

Beginning in 2012, Steve filed mass litigation following hailstorms in Hidalgo County. As a result, the Texas state legislature considered passing a bill to end "the apparent abuse" of mass litigation.

For the 2012 cycle, Mostyn contributed $5.2 million to Super PACs. The majority of the contributions went ($3 million) went to Priorities USA Action (pro-Barack Obama).

After Hurricane Ike in 2008, Mostyn made hundreds of millions of dollars filing lawsuits against insurance companies. He essentially created a "model" for getting victims of weather events to sue insurance companies. During a Texas House committee hearing in 2017 about HB 1774, a weather lawsuit reform bill, "the committee expressed concerns that the Ike model was now used for all major Texas weather events."

When Hurricane Rita hit Texas in 2005, Mostyn and his firm took the cases of homeowners who wanted to file lawsuits against their insurance companies on the belief that the insurance companies had underpaid the homeowners for hurricane damages. Steve filed 1,200 claims from this hurricane. According to Capital Research, "His strategy was to flood the zone, filing such a torrent of cases that insurance companies would be overwhelmed and decide to settle instead of litigate."

Born in Perth, Australia, Mostyn grew up in a small town in East Texas called Whitehouse. He attended the South Texas College of Law and graduated in 1996.

John Steven Mostyn (March 28, 1971 – November 15, 2017) was an American attorney and the founder of Mostyn Law in Houston, Texas. Mostyn and his wife also founded the Glenda Jean Mostyn and Joe E Moreno Educational Foundation, a charity to assist children with special needs.