Setting a Path to Define Litigation Management

What should litigation management look like in 2024 and beyond? For too many within the industry, it has simply become strategies and processes designed to reduce legal expenses. But real litigation management should go far beyond that. At CLM's 2024 Annual Conference, CEO Ronna Ruppelt announced the formation of a new Litigation Management Task Force that will dig deep into the topic and get the industry back on track to fulfilling the true purpose of litigation management.

Ruppelt sat down with CLM Magazine to answer some questions about the task force, its mission, and who should get involved and how.

Q: Why is now an important time to form the Litigation Management Task Force? What issues are you seeing in the area of litigation management that this task force can help address?

Ruppelt: There are some who believe that the industry’s recent financial challenges have triggered a backward shift where “litigation management” has become synonymous with “reducing legal expenses.” However, litigation management refers to a multi-faceted approach that incorporates a variety of actions with the goal of handling and overseeing claims-related litigation to achieve successful results on both indemnity and expenses. While what determines litigation success varies across carriers, we believe that the foundational principles of litigation handling can—and should—be agreed to across our industry. As the organization that brings claims and legal together, CLM is well positioned to get this conversation going.  

At a minimum, a comprehensive litigation management program includes aspects of each of the following:

• Defining success.
• Determining who in a claim organization handles litigated claims and ensuring appropriate knowledge of the litigation process.
• Establishing litigation management guidelines that drive decision-making for both claims and counsel that focuses on achieving results consistent with how success is defined in that organization.
• Usage, identification, selection and retention of in-house and external claims and litigation counsel.
• Usage or not of budgeting, billing guidelines and any legal bill auditing.
• Identification, usage and analysis of KPIs, and sharing that information “across the aisle.”

Q: Who should sign up for this task force, and how should they express interest in joining?

Ruppelt: We’re looking for managing attorneys, and CCOs/heads of litigation management at carriers, TPAs, or corporations. We have already had over 90 professionals within CLM sign up for the task force, and we will be forming subcommittees to address the different aspects of litigation management I mentioned above.

Those interested in joining the Litigation Management Task Force should sign up here.

Q: What will be the first order of business? Is there a kickoff discussion you’re looking forward to having or a particular question the task force will tackle initially?

Ruppelt: We believe there are fundamental philosophies surrounding litigation management that all in the industry can agree to. Our first order of business is to draft these Principles of Litigation Management. Because of the outpouring of interest in joining this task force that we received, I will be discussing with the initial members of the task force whether it makes sense to have a few sub-committees doing their work contemporaneously. More to come on that.

Q: What would be the ideal end result of this task force? If you had to define “success,” what would that look like?

Ruppelt: As is evident in the recent Suite 200 Solutions’ defense counsel survey prepared for CLM, the industry is at an inflection point, with concerns expressed by both counsel and claims. Taylor Smith, Suite 200 Solutions principal, states, “Our industry is unique in that if attorneys and their claim organization principals are not working well together, both constituencies suffer and under-perform.” The task force is still defining its activities. As that is fleshed out, success will be quantified.