School of Transportation Deans Seek to Fill Gap in Claims Education

Claims College is fast approaching, and those at the head of the new School of Transportation are in pole position waiting for the starting flag. Like the leaders of a well-trained pit crew, Dean Paul Berne, chief claims officer for Lancer Insurance, and Dean Tom McLaughlin, director of claims for Transport America, have assembled and fine-tuned the components of a program that is set to fill the gap in transportation claims education.

What prepared you both to lead the School of Transportation?

Paul: Tom and I have been in transportation claims and litigation management for over 62 years combined. While my experience has been entirely with insurance carriers, Tom not only brings skills from that side, but also from the trucking company perspective. We’ve both been involved in commercial auto claims and litigation management education for many years, and we saw in the Claims College’s School of Transportation a unique opportunity to develop a very comprehensive course of study taught by superb transportation claims professionals.

Who makes up the school’s executive council?

Tom: Our executive council primarily is responsible for developing the courses and related materials for the school, and is comprised of a “who’s who” list of leading transportation claims professionals. The council includes Edward Chuhna, Progressive Group of Insurance Companies; Michael Kota, Cardinal Logistics Management Corporation; Randy Metzger, Lancer Insurance Company; Sara Miemiec, Schneider National Inc.; and Carole Whitted-Ridgeway, Maverick Transportation LLC. We were thrilled from the onset to have an opportunity to work with them.

Who are the faculty members, and why is it important that they are insurance professionals educating other insurance professionals?

Paul: From our executive council, Carole, Sara, Ed, and Randy will be instructing. They will be joined by four trial attorneys who are CLMP graduates and have a wide range of experience in transportation large loss and litigation management. Additionally, they are from very different areas of the country, which will add breadth to the scope of the program.

What are some of the topics, issues, and trends that the first-year students will learn about?

Tom: They will begin with a case study scenario and work through the preliminary phase of loss response, including exposure recognition, evaluation of trucking-specific loss dynamics, and vehicle operation issues. They then will move into the investigation phase, which will include analysis of various types of common trucking accidents, how to deal with driver safety issues, and liability apportionment. In the resolution phase, students will learn how to respond to demands and lawsuits and about settlement and mediation techniques. The program will, in essence, cover loss management from report to closure.

There are three levels for every Claims College school. How will your school’s first year differ from the following two?

Paul: Level one will set a solid foundation in the fundamentals of truck claims exposure recognition, investigation, and resolution. Courses will cover the initial loss response process, dynamics of truck and motor carrier operations, and issues that impact claims outcomes. We’ll also look at the technology associated with trucking; fundamentals of common truck accident types; the role of attorneys, experts, and other industry practitioners; the methodology for determination of liability; damage analyses; case resolution strategies; selection of transportation defense counsel; and management of related lawsuits.

Tom: Once students have completed their first years, a common foundation and knowledge base will have been established. This is important to ensure that everyone is prepared for what lies ahead in levels two and three, where we begin to dive into more advanced areas.

In level two, we will expand on level one, including an explanation of advanced physics and accident reconstruction dynamics, advanced medical analysis of high-severity and complex injury cases, developing the skills necessary to participate in immediate response claims handling and empathetic skills training, and high-exposure case mediation participation. We’ll also focus on plaintiff’s attorney advanced strategies, litigation management, including how to assist outside counsel in the development of discovery and deposition questions, and isolating areas requiring legal research and a review of actual cases to evaluate winning and losing strategies. We’ll also give an introduction to aviation case dynamics.

Level three will be a more advanced version of level two, but is still being developed. We envision it will include anything from a preclass requirement to ride in actual trucks to understand the mechanics of driving and visibility issues, an actual download of vehicle electronic modules, presentations by medical practitioners in more complex injury types, and other highly complex material.

It’s going to be a lot of hard work for attendees, but they will leave with the most comprehensive training available for transportation loss.

Why is it important to establish a foundational knowledge in transportation-related claims for adjusters?

Paul: The world of transportation loss adjustment and litigation management continues to grow in complexity and downside risk. We will emphasize key information related to recognition of the urgency associated with transportation loss adjustment and the need to cover all the bases on every loss. The participants will hear early and often that transportation companies are target defendants, and it is critical to keep in mind that what appears to be a low exposure or no liability case can easily and quickly become a significant exposure.

For example, critical evidence must be gathered promptly following a truck accident, but it’s as important to have the right responders—highly proficient experts in truck operations and a team that knows what to do with the information immediately after it’s obtained. Improper or incomplete downloading of information from a vehicle black box, for example, can have a huge impact on the entire case.

It also is critical for practitioners to be thoroughly familiar with Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations. It should be expected in nearly all cases of significance that an angle of case pursuit by the plaintiffs will relate to allegations of violations. Many, if not most, of the huge verdicts we seem to be reading about on a weekly or more frequent basis relate to trucking accidents. While many of these cases were handled as well as they could have been, from time to time the cause of the adverse result can be directly attributed to something that wasn’t handled completely or correctly early in the claim and lawsuit.

Tom: Paul uses the word “urgency.” That’s one of the reasons why I love this business. The inherent nature of the trucking business necessitates that we are continuously moving and generating lots of data. An immediate and proper investigation is imperative for establishing a good foundation for defense. Crashes take place in diverse areas. Key witnesses, who may be present at the scene, might live in another state, and physical evidence may not be present days after a crash. Data generated by trucks, as well as documents produced by the company, can have short lifecycles. An adjuster or attorney handling trucking claims has to have a sense of urgency as a core value. Otherwise, the results could be disastrous.