Three Ways Claims Adjusters Can Reduce Legal Fees

Reprinted with permission from:

The Bassett Firm
Two Turtle Creek Village
3838 Oak Lawn Avenue
Suite 1300
Dallas, Texas 75219
(214) 219-9900 Telephone
(214) 219-9456 Facsimile
Toll Free: 1-800-310-9769
www.thebassettfirm.com

With the United States’ economy having “fallen off the cliff” (according to Warren Buffet), now more than ever companies need to be looking at ways to reduce their costs. With this in mind, The Bassett Firm wanted to give you some tips on how you can reduce the amount of money you pay to lawyers handling your cases.

1. Document, Document, Document
Document everything that you do on a file. That way, if the case goes into litigation, no one is wondering what has been done on the file. This prevents repeating tasks and, more importantly, prevents your attorneys from having to do things that have already been done. And remember this – the less your attorneys do on a file, the cheaper your legal bills are going to be.

2. Make Your Pictures Count
Remember the movie My Cousin Vinny? (If you haven’t seen it, do so. If that movie doesn’t make you laugh out loud, check your pulse.) Well taken pictures can literally be worth thousands of dollars. Don’t be frugal – once an accident scene changes, it is gone forever. Besides, often times you won’t know how significant a picture is until the case progresses. Make sure that the attorney handling the file is given copies of the photographs. If they are not included in claim file materials, guess what? They attorney is going to go out (on your nickel) and take another complete set of photographs. Again, that is money you don’t need to spend.

One final note – if possible, photograph the claimant (not at the scene of the accident or with any obvious injuries). A good photograph of the claimant can help surveillance later down the road. The last thing you want to do is have your lawyer try to conduct surveillance on a Plaintiff who is described as a white male in his mid 40’s with dark hair. That narrows the field down to about 1,784,362 possible people in the DFW Metroplex.

3. Make Your Recorded Statements Count
When you are taking a recorded statement, please get clean, clear answers. “Uh huh” and “Uh-uh” are really pretty useless. The problem is is that it provides huge wiggle room to the witness. Also, please get some form of identifying information that your attorney can use to track down a witness at a later date. Social security number, date of birth, driver’s license number, or next of kin are all great. Providing this information in a recorded statement is going to save a ton of time should your attorney need to run down a witness on the eve of trial.

Have an outline and stick to it. An outline is not a script; rather, it is a “go by” to help you make sure you don’t miss anything when taking a recorded statement. The last thing you want to do is spend weeks or months getting a recorded statement set up, take the statement, and 15 minutes after you have hung up realize you didn’t ask a very key question.

A well taken recorded statement can be very helpful in defending a case. A poorly taken recorded statement means that your attorney is going to have to go out and re-interview that witness (assuming it is not the claimant) and guess what that does to your legal bills – you guessed it, it increases them. There is no need to spend money for a lawyer to go do something that can be done right the first time.

There they are – three simple ways that you can reduce the legal expenses on your files. Document everything that you do so that no one reinvents the wheel. Take good photographs so that your attorney can better evaluate the case and doesn’t have to spend your money to go out and taken another set of photographs. Finally, make your recorded statements count.

Teamsters Anti-Independent Contractor Bill Advances

Courtesy of the Minnesota Trucking Association Friday, March 6, 2009 Posting:

Despite vigorous opposition from the Minnesota Trucking Association and the courier industry, House File 813 advanced to the floor of the Minnesota House of Representatives. This Teamsters-backed bill, authored by Representative Sheldon Johnson (DFL-St. Paul), dramatically alters the definition of an independent contractor (IC) in the trucking industry. The bill passed out of the House Jobs and Commerce Committee on Tuesday along a strict party line vote. It is clear the Teamsters have made this their top priority for this legislative session and are calling in their chips from legislators they supported during last year’s election.

This bill is bad for trucking in at least three key ways: 1) It eliminatesthe current clear six-factor test for defining ICs in the trucking industry for purposes of unemployment insurance and replaces it with a much broader ABC test. The net effect is that it will be easier for the State to classify an IC as an employee, 2) It creates less uniformity among the definitions used by the various state agencies for determining IC status, and 3) It directs state agencies to conduct targeted audits of trucking companies in an effort to proactively find instances of employee “misclassification.”

The battle is far from over. The MTA has introduced its own IC “reform” bill, Senate File 733, which should be scheduled for a hearing in the Minnesota Senate in the near future. Look for coming action alerts regarding next steps you can take to stop the Teamsters bill and advance the MTA bill.