Cut Costs and Improve Outcomes

The primary desire in litigation, insurance claims resolution, and intellectual property disputes is to cut costs and improve outcomes.  Litigation is an expense to insurers and corporations and reducing costs is not easy.  Although only 20%to 25% of primary general casualty insurers’ claims involve litigation, legal fees are the 2nd largest segment (after claims personnel) of loss adjustment expense.  A litigation cost survey of companies and insurers from the Fortune 200 (Lawyers for Civil Justice, Civil Justice Reform Group, and U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform, 2010 Conference on Civil Litigation, Duke Law School, May 10-11, 2010) found that the average annual litigation costs as a percent of revenues increased 78%.  The average discovery costs during 2006 to 2008 ranged from $621,880 to $2,993,567, and up to $9,759,900 for high-end cases.  Litigation transaction costs (not including judgments and settlements) was $4.1 billion in 2008 for 36 respondents.  A substantial portion of these costs is incurred in the technical investigation by expert witnesses of product failures and accidents. 

Our business consulting for insurers and corporate counsel is based on the fact that the only sure way to reduce costs is to resolve the case early, and the only sure way to improve outcomes when technical issues are involved is to have an investigation that provides superior insight in a manner that is actionable.  Our consulting provides proven innovative approaches to achieving these goals.

In the prevailing approach, experts are often not involved early so the insight to identify and understand the key issues is not developed until trial is at hand, and there is little basis for either party to assess their risks and make decisions to settle early,  Our approach overcomes this challenge by using "gatekeeper" methods that leading companies use in the early stages of R&D.  In our approach a broadly experienced expert uses a combination of information gathering coupled with top-notch analysis from the outset of the case with the goal of identifying the key issues and developing as much as 80% of the insight that may be produced by a full detailed investigation.  This is possible because a tremendous amount of knowledge is available today, but it often was not developed for the litigation topic and has gaps.  Only a highly skilled and broadly experienced expert can overcome this challenge to find this information and apply it to the litigation case in a reliable way.

This approach provides actionable insight that can driving early favorable resolution by providing a reliable basis for understanding the strengths of each party's case.  This approach also guides the collaboration of claims professionals, corporate counsel, outside attorneys, and experts so that you get the benefits of the synergistic multiplier of a team rather than simply a sum of the parts.