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Tag Archives: Litigation Management

  1. 2 Approaches To Early Resolution And Cost Savings For Litigation Guidelines September 19, 2011

    Posted in Mediation & Settlement, Negotiation, SPOT on Costs.

    We welcome Nancy Hudgins as a contributing author to the Claims SPOT. Nancy is is a national mediator based in San Francisco and will be writing on resolving claims. In her first post, she points to two methods to early resolution and ways they can cut litigation cost.

    5 comments
  2. Getting Creative And Reducing Claim Costs Without Sacrificing Quality – Part II December 22, 2010

    Posted in Litigation Management, SPOT on Costs, SPOT on Ops.

    Last month, Suzanne Ganier discussed the building blocks needed to reduce claim and litigation costs, while still maintaining a strong focus on quality. Those building blocks included:

    * collecting current data about your claims and litigation
    * evaluating the claim and litigation work itself
    * settling on a carrier claim and litigation handling philosophy

    In her follow up, Suzanne discusses how these building blocks create a foundation on which to build new processes and procedures that will reduce your claim and litigation costs, and maybe even decrease you volume as well. I refer this building process as looking at What I Have, What I Want, and What I See.

    3 comments
  3. Time to Get Creative – Reducing Claim Costs without Sacrificing Quality (or your sanity) November 22, 2010

    Posted in Litigation Management, SPOT on Costs, SPOT on Ops.

    In an environment of increased pressure to reduce costs and close claims, bright ideas can help to reduce legal costs while still ensuring great service. In this article, litigation expert Suzanne Ganier speaks about the importance of understanding what you know and what you don’t, analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of those involved in the litigation process, and aligning those analyses with your organization’s philosophies. The result can be a litigation management process that reduces overall claim costs and preserves your sanity.

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  4. 3 Ways To Help Defense Counsel Help You Make Claims Management More Efficient September 3, 2010

    Posted in Best Practices, Litigation Management, SPOT on Ops.

    We all talk about collaboration with counsel as a means to get better results at a lower costs. But getting what you want is not so easy. How about trying to get what you truly need to get your job done. In our latest post, we discuss three suggestions for helping counsel help you get better results. No attorney is going to say that they don’t want to make a claims professional’s job easier, so help them to help you. Start by telling them what you do, ask for what you want, and then make sure they do it. Take a look at the latest – from the Claims SPOT.

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  5. AMA Study Finds Almost 1 Malpractice Claim Is Filed For Every Physician – Not Really Shocking August 23, 2010

    Posted in Medical Malpractice, SPOT on Issues.

    A study from the American Medical Association (AMA) reports that an average of 95 medical liability claims are filed for every 100 physicians, almost one per physician. The AMA study looked at 42 specialties and was from a sample size of over 5,800 physicians. The number of medical liability claims is not an indication of the frequency of medical error, as the physician prevails 90 percent of the time in cases that go to trial. While 65 percent of claims are dropped or dismissed, they are not cost-free.

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  6. 3 Suggestions To Beat The Summer Slow Down In Claims (If You Do Slow Down) August 3, 2010

    Posted in Best Practices, SPOT on Issues.

    It’s summer time and the living is easy!

    Take advantage of the summer slow down and make changes, clean things up and improve your operation. In the latest post from the Claims SPOT see three suggestions for ways to use your summer effectively. One for the manager, one for the claims handler and one for the claims executive, suggestions to use the slow down to improve your operation. Take a look and suggest others – we would love to hear from you.

    2 comments
  7. The Modern Claims File – 5 Considerations When Selecting A Records Retrieval Partner June 14, 2010

    Posted in Claims Technology, Litigation Management, SPOT on Costs, SPOT on Ops.

    The growth of national records retrieval partners, and the availability of sophisticated web-based record delivery platforms, means new options for claims executives looking to improve their operations. Turning over the routine tasks associated with retrieving records in the claims process to an expert company can mean more time available for what claims professionals, staff counsel and outside law firms do best — analyzing and resolving claims. It can also mean faster retrieval and lower case cycle times. And, depending upon how the records are presented, it can dramatically reduce the time required to index, sort and derive real analytical value from the records themselves. Five key ideas for what to consider in selecting a records retrieval partner are discussed.

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  8. 5 Items To Consider When Evaluating An Electronic-Invoicing System For Your Outside Law Firms May 26, 2010

    Posted in Litigation Management, SPOT on Costs, SPOT on Ops.

    Estimates vary, but by most accounts roughly 30% of P & C claims organizations have put some kind of e-billing platform in place. Now, as prices have decreased and law firm utilization expanded, these solutions are easily accessible by claims organizations of all sizes, including those with very low legal expenditures. In Taylor Smith’s last post, 10 Keys To Managing Court Reporting Costs, he wrote about the benefits claims organizations are experiencing when implementing a national court reporting program. He now tackles several key concepts to consider when implementing an e-billing system to improve the management of legal invoices.

    Take a look and let us know what you think.

    1 comment
  9. 10 Key Steps To Managing Court Reporting Costs Designed To Save Claims Expenses May 21, 2010

    Posted in SPOT on Costs.

    There are simple ways to lower costs so stop throwing money away As a consultant working with insurance carriers and the service and technologies who sell to them, I am often asked about new areas for improved cost management. While there are often many opportunities to consider, I often focus on court reporting costs. Why? […]

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  10. Cutting Costs Without Overloading The Claims Handler – Part 2 Of The Series April 6, 2010

    Posted in SPOT on Costs.

    In part 2 of this series on cutting cost without overloading claim handlers I given an example of hiring a part-time employee to review legal bills. As noted, sometimes specific types of work, such as legal bill review, subrogation and anti-fraud, can best be handled by dedicated resources. Hiring a part-time employee that can focus on an area of claims is sometimes the best way to get results. Overworking claims handlers with additional tasks not part of their core job function – to evaluate and settle claims – can result in some aspect of their job suffering. Key cost cutting initiatives, such as Anti-Fraud and subrogation recovery, get put aside by the handler and never get the fullest attention needed to be successful. Take a look at the latest example of solutions that work.

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  11. The 5 Essential Components of Defense Attorney Reports That Can Improve Claims Costs and Outcomes March 14, 2010

    Posted in Commentary, My SPOT, SPOT on Costs.

    Why are Attorney Evaluation Reports sometimes so light? I was recently conducting an audit of claim files and had the opportunity to review a significant number of Attorney Evaluation reports from a variety of law firms. Like many other things in life, some were better than others. What seemed to be most glaringly consistent was the inability of counsel to truly provide an assessment of exposure and what the case is worth. Every counsel evaluation report should contain 5 basic components that I outline and attorneys should be required to provide their actual valuable opinion. [More…]

    7 comments
  12. Thinking Outside The Box: Litigation management program initiatives can substantially lower costs February 25, 2010

    Posted in Litigation Management, SPOT on Costs.

    Managing litigation is an easy way to save extra expense costs on claims files. A strong litigation management program designed to help foster improved communication, and streamline defense of insureds, benefits all parties involved. As I wrote about the cost savings benefits of out-of-the-box claims handling, using new and forward thinking strategies for litigation management is an excellent way to save money. Using specialized vendors, claim handlers can further control legal costs as well as enhance their defense.

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