You probably won’t hear a lot of insurance defence lawyers saying this, but we have a lot in common with farmers.
We tend to reap what we sow.
We don’t do it for the glamour.
And you might say that we get to see the back end of a lot of claims, as well as the “products of digestion” through the judicial system.
Many times, we see files where unfortunate policy wordings, indifferent investigation, or stubborn resistance to obvious truths, have derailed the makings of a good defence.
However, at the company level, what do you do with this kind of “negative” outcome? Is it recycled into fertilizer for making the other parts of the business stronger, or simply thrown out? Does anyone go back to the underwriting department or to the claims handlers / independent adjusters and help them revise their practices in a constructive way?
Insurance defence lawyers who have seen thousands of claims (from numerous different companies) can help you recycle your “crappy” results into best practices that impact the next claim, and the one after that. It’s an important part of what we do, because your business is ultimately our business.