Increasing Your Firm’s Standing with Claims Organizations​

Many property and casualty claims organizations report that they spend more on litigation expenses than on costs related to running their claims departments. The biggest portion of those expenses are attorneys’ fees, essentially making the management of those fees, and those attorneys, a critical component of a successful claims program.

According to the 2019 CLM Litigation Management Study, claims organization inventories are rising and costs per-file litigation are also increasing. These changes are happening at the same time that litigation program effectiveness continues to receive high levels of attention from insurance carrier CEOs and senior management. Requirements for real-time analytics and performance data is now considered a must-have.

According to the CLM Study, only 54% of claims organizations polled stated that their relationships with firms are stronger than they were 5 years ago. Only 60% stated that firms understand their needs better than in previous years (down from 70% in 2015). Even more troubling, only 48% of organizations stated that firms are doing a better job of creating value (down from 58% in 2015).

For law firms, this represents an opportunity. How, then, can firms help their claims partners to succeed at meeting their business requirements, while also improving their standing as a firm of choice? Let’s look at the data.

It’s not a simple monetary discussion. Almost all claim and litigation executives acknowledge that they use “go-to” firms. These are firms that are used on the most difficult cases, with the most complex issues. These are firms that are trusted the most.

In fact, 60% of Study respondents stated that money is not as important for their go-to firms. And what makes for a go-to firm? One that shows strategic focus, can provide useful and accurate analytics and reporting, and works with organization to operate with better billing judgment.

Improving how you communicate with the claims teams, effectively describing your value and distinguishing your firm competitively are also keys to reaching go-to status. Providing clear metrics will help you stand out – 90% of organizations polled in the Study said it is rare that a firm provides metrics.

Want to understand how your firm is performing? 92% of the executives polled stated they were willing to share their data with a firm if they were asked. If that sounds foreign, it is. 96% of claims executives stated that firms don’t ask for this information enough.

For a quick checklist to move your firm into a more favored status, the Study captured the below as the leading criteria for what claims executives wished firms did a better job of: communication and reporting, focus on early resolution by being proactive and creative, showing strong case evaluation skills, providing metrics, displaying better billing judgment, educating their staff, and demonstrating the ability to plan, budget, strategize and execute.

We at CaseGlide understand these challenges and have built our collaboration platform to help firms clearly demonstrate their value to their business partners. By having claims professionals and their defense attorneys work together in the same system, following defined workflows and capturing key data points, we’re able to remove obstacles concerning communication, early resolution, and metrics.

In the CaseGlide environment, both parties can clearly see case status, tasks completed and those to be worked, applicable case documents, settlement status and performance metrics. As everyone involved works in the same collaborative platform, defense firms can position themselves clearly to reach well-deserved “go-to” status and provide the data behind the results to prove it.