Litigation is a cost of doing business. Make sure you understand how much it really costs…and that includes attorney fees, not just payouts. Create an attorney scorecard so you can compare results between internal and external counsel; measure attorney performance, time management and price, and whether they correlate; and benchmark the cost of future litigation.
According to the Association of Corporate Counsel, attorney scorecards should assess whether an attorney:
- Won the trial or appeal
- Closed the deal
- Settled the matter for less than X dollars
- Concluded the litigation within X number of months
- Performed component piece of work X at a cost of Y dollars
- Submitted budgets and forecasts on time, as requested
- Forecasted expenditures with reasonable accuracy
- Completed the work at or below the budgeted amount (adjusted as necessary to account for unexpected changes in assumptions)
- Applied discounts correctly
Attorney scorecard data can help companies decide how litigation is handled, as well as understand how lawyers work—meaning how long repeatable cases usually take or how much they typically cost, according to the Property Casualty 360 article, 8 Best Practices for Claims Litigation Management.
Regardless of litigation type, it’s helpful to house all case-related documentation and data—including attorney scorecards—in one central location. Doing so is even more helpful when litigation is tied to insurance claims because the amount of documentation increases exponentially.
Risk Management Information Systems (RMIS) are ideal for integrating such information—like combining claim records with attorney scorecards. As a result, users can easily streamline how they analyze and rate their attorneys’ performance.
RMIS document management tools allow you to store and link all claim records and related attorney communications, invoices and other miscellaneous legal records. This minimizes time spent searching and sorting through spreadsheets and other files to associate the right claims with the right attorneys to analyze performance.
RMIS data import tools allow you to update and upload attorneys’ billable hour and payment data into dynamic spreadsheets. This saves you from having to manually enter or re-enter such information into the same location as claim records or other relevant legal documentation if you desire keeping everything in one place to help analyze performance.
RMIS dashboard tools let you easily roll up all attorney data with graphs to see the number of hours each person has associated with specific claims—not to mention their past win-loss ratios or the speed with which they closed other claims. The graphs can help identify key billers, those attorneys that are best suited for a given type of claim, and those attorneys about to reach an hourly limit or threshold for settlement.
Using analytics to rate the performance of attorneys helps ensure you are working with those firms that best meet your needs. By pulling all of this information together into a comprehensive report, you greatly enhance your ability to manage claims litigation and attorney performance in the most efficient and effective manner.