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Readers,
How often have you found yourself in the awkward position of receiving a legal bill that does not conform to your billing guidelines, but you are reluctant to contest it because you want to avoid an argument with an otherwise good firm that you want to retain? (This is called a “predictable surprise” – see my Ideas article). The Litigation Management Strategy article in this issue provides you with an effective tool to deal with this dilemma: Rule 1.5 of the ABA Professional Rules of Conduct. As the article indicates, most lawyers, when give the opportunity to validate their bills on the basis of Rule 1.5 are more than happy to submit bills that conform to your billing guidelines. The John G. Kelly Report in this issue provides you with an ongoing update on the work of the UTBMS Insurance Update Initiative. A UTBMS Insurance Litigation Code Set is in final draft form and will be approved for formal adoption at the upcoming meeting of the group scheduled for November 2 nd. It will be posted on the DRI web site but I will make certain that a copy is forwarded to LMR readers as soon as it is available for distribution. The book reviewed in the Ideas section is on a topic that every litigation manager knows all too well – predictable “surprises.” It often seems as though every other file contains at least one opportunity to say “ I told you so” or to have it said to you. Give the ideas in this book some thought and cut down on the ambushes.
Enjoy your read but before you do, please take note of the following announcement:
I believe in building on success. The Litigation Management Report (LMR) will celebrate its fifth birthday in 2007. It is time to promote it to the next generation of a leading-edge source for insight and innovation into insurance defense litigation management. Look forward to dedicated sections in each issue that will provide you with hands-on best practices information by subject matter experts on these issues:
Cost Control
Process Improvement
Performance Management
Insurers need to gain more insight into how law firms are responding to emerging developments in insurance defense claims management, and taking the lead in developing client-entered solutions to cost-effective claims management. Look forward to a dedicated section in each issue on:
- Law Firm Best Practices;
- This next generation of LMR will continue provide you with an opportunity to look and think outside the envelope with a dedicated section on: Ideas;
- I'll continue to act as your trusted guide on tips on what you should be reading up on to keep on top of your game with Must Reads.
Many of you have indicated to me that you want hard copies of the LMR to keep on hand for a second read and redistribution among your colleagues. Good news! The next generation of LMR will be available in hard copy as well as an electronic version.
Now, all of this is taking me a bit of time to pull together. Don't expect a November/December issue of the LMR but keep an eye out for an eye opener next generation LMR in January 2007.
Regards,
John
| Litigation
Management Strategy |
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Taking Law Firms to Task that Don’t Submit Task-Based Bills
You will read more good news about the progress being made by the Uniform Task Based Management (UTBMS) Insurance Initiative on promoting the universal application of the recently articulated Litigation Code Set for strategic bill management in the John G. Kelly Report section of this issue. But what about law firms that for one reason or another don’t subscribe to task based billing and still submit legal invoices on an hourly basis? How can an insurance litigation manager accurately assess the bill from a legal expense management perspective? The solution is to require the law firm to adhere to Rule 1.5 of the ABA Professional Rules of Conduct: Fees. The pain of adhering to a strict interpretation of Rule 1.5 may be the incentive needed to demonstrate the gain of embracing UTBMS and task-code billing.... click here
to learn more
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| John
G. Kelly Report |
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Report on the UTBMS Insurance Update Initiative Meeting of
August 16 th, 2006 in Chicago
Meeting Notes
Agenda Item #1 – Branding
The group engaged in a general discussion on whether and to what extent it should look to developing a distinctive label for itself and how it might brand materials it developed. It was felt that at this point these issues were premature. No consensus emerged and the matter was tabled for future discussion.... click here
to learn more
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| Ideas |
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Predictable Surprises
The Disasters You Should Have Seen Coming and How to Prevent Them
Max H. Bazerman
Michael D. Watkins
Harvard Business School Press
I told you so! You should have known! Those are the sort of “after the fact” refrains we’ve all said and heard subsequent to an unfortunate occurrence that, in hindsight, could have been prevented or avoided. Why wasn’t it? It’s because of the “predictable surprise” phenomenon. We all know about it but in too many instances we don’t know what to do about it. The magnitude of the Hurricane Katrina disaster and the dramatic nature of the predictable surprises that affect all of us in our business and personal lives – think identity theft- necessitate a change in this mindset..... click
here to learn more
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