Risk Management
Several components of Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) relate directly to conflict resolution, most notably the implementation of programs to prevent incidents that involve loss (such as workplace safety in factories, patient safety in hospitals and other facilities) and the use of claims resolution procedures where transaction costs are held to a minimum.
I had the opportunity to study this extensively through several client engagements, and as a part of a contintuing legal education (CLE) program my colleagues and I conducted for attorneys in partnership with the University of Maryland School of Law.
We analyzed loss runs for several major physician insurance carriers, which led to the finding that 50-70% of payouts by these carriers went to plaintiff and defense attorneys’ fees, experts and mediation/arbitration fees, with the remainder to injured patients. In the University of Maryland law symposium, we demonstrated that using a Negotiation Attorney model, these costs could be reduced to under 10%.
I invite you to download Beyond Tort Reform, a paper that presents the case for early resolution systems as a part of enterprise risk management, and as a more robust solution than legislative caps on awards.
If you would like to explore how your organization might make use of our findings, please call or email me.