Litigation technology poised to enhance insurers’ case results

June 2, 2021 / 3 min read

Although claims litigation is the number one contributor to insurers’ loss costs[i], carriers often struggle to understand the nature of these expenses due to inadequate communication and collaboration. In fact, many claims teams lack visibility into where the claim is at once it hits the litigation phase. Yet claims leaders need to manage reserves and keep an eye on final claims costs – which can be strongly impacted by what goes on behind the courtroom’s closed doors.

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The push for greater visibility into legal expenditures isn’t unique to the insurance industry; the broader litigation space has been pushing for more insights into processes. This is supported by a 2020 Gartner survey, which found that many legal departments will triple their spending on legal technology by 2025.

For insurers, legal case management and analytics tools can improve communication and collaboration between carriers and their legal teams, automate core tasks, and analyze data to improve strategic litigation decisions.

Clear communication and easily accessible updates

In the myriad details of a court case, it’s easy for email communications to get lost in the inbox. The result is that legal teams waste time looking for claim updates and settlement specifics – and potentially miss strategic opportunities during fast-moving cases. With a greater focus on digital case management, carriers and legal teams could share claim details in a secure, centralized system. Attorneys could input case updates directly to the system, making accurate information accessible to claims representatives at any time.

Collaborative claim partnerships

With litigation case management technology, claims managers will have transparency into where claims are at in the legal process. With this insight, they can make decisions to adjust resource allocations, which is especially helpful in complex cases. Legal tech also can provide automated task management, data capture, and data analysis that can ultimately drive efficiency. By automating portions of the process, legal teams and carriers will have more bandwidth to focus on cases while continually improving the overall claims strategy and identifying ways to lower litigation costs.

The cost-saving power of legal analytics

Teasing high-value information from scattered emails is a challenge, if not impossible. In a case management platform, however, data is structured and useable. Carriers and legal teams can run data analytics to benchmark litigation spend, detect expense spikes early, and improve strategic decisions. In addition, legal analytics can help answer critical questions that can lead to better case outcomes: Which lawyers resolve claims faster? Which lawyers are the best negotiators? Which attorney or firm is the ideal choice when a specific type of claim goes to trial?

Bringing legal insights into your claims

The new world of legal tech solutions for insurance claims can enhance litigation processes, improve communication, and provide valuable data insights. The returns will be faster claim resolutions, smarter counsel assignments, more focused legal strategies, and lower overall litigations costs. Verisk is developing a suite of legal analytics tools that are bringing these revolutionary changes to the insurance industry. To learn more about these ground-breaking analytic solutions, contact Stephanie Fox at Stephanie.Fox@verisk.com.

ISO Claims Partners sourced from multiple carriers.