A successful litigation plan is one that ensures that the client goals are achieved. While a carefully monitored budget is important, the essential aspect of litigation management is to ensure that your goals are understood and incorporated into the litigation plan. Included in implementing the plan are the following:
Conduct a complete investigation. Before any meaningful litigation plan can be developed, an understanding of the facts, both relating to liability and damages, must be obtained. Risk Retention Services will coordinate a complete investigation. With a clear understanding of the facts, you are better able to define your goals, from which all subsequent litigation tasks will be driven.
Settlement. Is it your goal to settle a case? If so, this plan should properly be conveyed, as the litigation process changes dramatically. It makes no sense to spend money on an attorney up to the point of trial, and then settle at the last minute.
Defend through trial. Is your goal to protect your good name by not settling a dubious claim? If so, this must be conveyed as this means that the case should be aggressively defended. The best defense is a good offense. RRS believes in driving the litigation: marshalling the facts and experts (where required) to win the case and protect your reputation.
Protect interests nationwide. Businesses often sell their goods and services nationwide. Decisions made in one case can affect decisions and even outcomes in others. Having Risk Retention Services on your side ensures that you have a nationwide defense strategy, and that work be performed to maximize the results in each case, and in all cases.
Once your goal has been defined for a particular case, Risk Retention Services is uniquely qualified to manage your litigation to ensure that your goals are achieved on a cost-effective basis.
In every case, specifically tailored to the client’s goals, RRS maximizes results by:
Monitoring the attorney activity. In all cases, the attorney needs to be effectively monitored. This means more than merely receiving quarterly reports, which may be enough for some insurance companies. Someone on your side needs to ensure that each task performed moves the case forward, and properly defends your interests.
Hands-on involvement. Risk Retention Services has experience in litigation, and reviews every proposed pleading, motion, and deposition. It assists the attorneys in preparing for depositions (sworn testimony), and has a database of experts in numerous fields. It ensures that the case is prepared in an aggressive, yet cost effective manner.
Utilize Legal Database. Risk Retention Services maintains a database of legal briefs and memos on frequently litigated issues. There is no need to pay an attorney to reinvent the wheel, when legal issues and research have been retained for our clients’ use in other cases. This also ensures that counsel is aware of cases in various jurisdictions that may help you win the case.
Drafting Discovery Responses. Regardless of who pays the lawyer (the insurer or the client); the costs are figured into your premiums. By working with Risk Retention Services, written “discovery”, which often costs tens of thousands of dollars for an attorney to prepare, can be initially drafted by Risk Retention Services, and reviewed with you. This way, attorney fees are reserved for work that actually requires legal analysis and preparation.
Only when the client’s goals are fully understood can Risk Retention Services ensure that a litigation plan is developed and implemented to maximize success. However, once those goals are determined, Risk Retention Services becomes a valued asset in ensuring that the goals are achieved on a cost-effective basis.
