Perfectly Legal

Perfectly Legal

Managing legal invoices electronically allows a carrier to obtain a better understandingof what outside counsel is doing to represent the carrier in claims litigation.

Lawyer jokes aside, working with 160 law firms is no laughing matter for a property/casualty insurer such as Westfield Insurance, which often finds itself involved in claims litigation throughout its 26 operating states. That is why Westfield went searching for a technology solution that could perform three primary functions: assist in the review of invoices from outside counsel; capture legal-expense data; and create an efficient collaborative management platform to work with counsel.

Dan Winkler, director of claims legal support services at Westfield, reports the company threw a net over the entire legal e-billing industry when it began its search for a solution. "We assembled a team that represented our claims department and our business solutions group," Winkler explains.

The team identified a number of vendors in the field. "Due diligence started in January 2002," he says. "We reviewed the various vendors that were identified, and given the parameters of our technology objectives and our various management initiatives, we eventually signed a contract with TyMetrix in May 2002." TyMetrix delivers its matter management and electronic invoicing system under the ASP model, allowing clients to take advantage of lower capital costs and eliminate system development, maintenance, and data storage.

"Due to the inherently sensitive nature of the data we store and transfer, we carefully scrutinized the TyMetrix system security and security protocols," Winkler says. "We were impressed by its expertise in maintaining system security and with its commitment to hosting its application securely."

Westfield works collaboratively with its law firms to help ensure outcomes are timely and cost efficient. "Wrapping this around an electronic solution where much of this work previously had been done on paper took some getting used to," Winkler says.

Westfield is committed to selecting outside counsel carefully and providing feedback to legal firms to increase collaboration and improve results. "There is a vast range of factors that go into the selection of outside counsel," notes Winkler. "Some are objective, such as billing rates, win/loss ratio, and budget adherence. Some are subjective, such as responsiveness, timeliness, work quality, and case evaluation accuracy. We needed a way to gather all of this information in a single place, quickly review and analyze it, and then use it to make counsel evaluation decisions."

In the TyMetrix system, Westfield collects objective data on firm performance through electronic invoicing, budget reports, and case closure information. Additionally, Westfield collects subjective data through a "counsel report card" in which the lead claim handler rates the law firm in three areas: knowledge/skill, file management, and service.

"While one of our requirements was to streamline the submission and review of invoices with an electronic invoicing tool, we would have done ourselves a big disservice to forgo the opportunity to capitalize on the real benefits of this technology–namely, the collaborative platform and the automatic aggregation of financial invoice information that can be used for budgeting, analyses, planning, reporting, and counsel evaluation," Winkler adds.

The data analysis is an important part of the system, he indicates. "Our real impetus for moving forward with this system was to create a world where we collaborate with counsel and use the data as the real nuts and bolts of how we move forward with a case, a law firm, and our departmentwide strategic management initiatives."

The carrier has received an immediate return on its investment in terms of streamlining the invoice process, says Winkler, resulting in fewer touches and less administrative time. There also have been and continue to be significant long-term returns. "We believe the best results are achieved when information and case strategy are developed and shared immediately at the beginning of an assignment," he maintains. "Having this system in place has allowed us to adopt quickly a strategically enhanced position."