Five Ways to Reduce the Legal Expenses of Workers Compensation

Should we use legal expense review companies? An attorney I know posted a joke on a Facebook page that is fairly accurate these days. An adjuster hands a new file to her counsel and tells him, “I do not want to pay anything on this file, including legal expenses.” Upon hearing this, the attorney asks why he should be expected to review, handle, and get rid of a new case for free? The adjuster advises, “That is not my problem it is yours. If you want the business, do as I ask.”

This is a current trend within the insurance business. Insurance companies have long used outside Medical Bill Review (MBR) companies, or they have internal review departments, to review procedure codes in medical bills and reduce charges per jurisdiction guidelines.

Legal expense review companies have popped up and are growing rapidly. Their purpose is to do the same bill review on legal fees for cases and reduce charges accordingly. This has led to some aggravation on the part of legal firms, who feel their bills are being reduced more and more. It seems like the carriers want more services for less cost. This can be achieved properly, however, if we use a lot of common sense here. Using the most experienced and attentive attorney on files, not the least expensive, is sometimes the best way to go, because one has to take a “TOTAL cost” approach, not a “short term cost reduction” approach. Sometimes it is better to spend more now to reduce overall expenses in the longer term.

1. Firms should use paralegals or legal assistants to review medical notes and establish a file timeline from start to current.

Certain adjusters have always used dedicated counsel — specific attorneys — to handle their cases. Sometimes the dedicated attorney is advised to handle the case from start to finish. The legal firm will use this as a chance to bill the insurance companies for all activity, including file review and setup.

The hourly charge between the actual attorney doing all tasks, and what they charge for their assistant doing the same tasks, can be very large. Attorney fees can range up to $300+ an hour, whereas legal assistants doing the same work can be billed up to one quarter of that, if not less, depending on the firm and what the insurance company has negotiated for a rate. These are called “negotiated rates.”

The initial legal file setup, timeline construction, and medical records review are usually the most time-consuming tasks, depending on the size of the file and how complex it is. In one million dollar claim and the medical records took up an entire side of the office. The utilization review expert was reviewing each document, finding inaccuracies and reducing the medical expenses accordingly. An RN with 20 years surgical experience was doing this review. There can be significant cost-savings by making sure the assistant does this task, and not the actual attorney. An RN can be quite helpful on these tasks, and many paralegals are excellent.

The first meetings between plaintiff attorney and defense counsel are usually uneventful. Both sides review the case and offer their stance on the file. They point out differences in the case and why there is a difference in opinion. Legal expense reduction companies state the actual attorney should not be present at these hearings, since nothing of significance happens. This way you do not have to pay larger travel costs, and time charges while waiting for plaintiff counsel to show up. This can be a nice savings in your legal budget.

CAVEAT: While this is the advice proffered by legal cost reductions companies, some adjusters prefer to use the more expensive upfront strategy, which is to use the MOST qualified person on the team – usually an experienced defense attorney.

One thing the legal expense review companies see a lot of is overcharging for simple communication with the adjuster. A quick email response or phone call does not need to cost a quarter-hour fee, even though some firms try to sneak in such charges.

Granted, if discussion is part of a conference on an action plan or overall case review, the attorney can justify charges, and if it is a detailed discussion important to the case, the adjuster should be charged for that time. But, if the question is a simple issue, there is no need to overcharge for the service. Legal firms will often say simple communication is included in their negotiated cost for the opportunity to handle the case, and if such charges are included in their bill the legal expense company will cut the charge down or eliminate it totally.

If your attorney goes to local court to handle most of their clients’ cases, they should not be able to bill each carrier separately at maximum rate if they were going to travel there anyway on cases for other carriers. Or, if they do, you should be aware of this practice. Most legal firms will bill separately for this reason, but there are some that will isolate each case and bill accordingly at the maximum rate.

Legal expense review will often ask, if counsel was heading to court to handle a day’s worth of case negotiations for various clients, why should each carrier have to pay a large charge for this travel? Granted, if this is a special trip, or a trip to another jurisdiction especially for your case, then the charge may be justified. But it is the job of the legal firm to handle their bills accordingly for each carrier or the charge will be reduced by the legal expense firm.

Due to carrier demands, and the abundance of files for firms to handle, negotiating power is in the carrier’s hands. The consensus is, if a firm does not want to reduce fees to what the carrier wants, the carrier will find a firm who will do what they want. This is creating a bad environment for attorneys since most of them have longstanding relationships with certain carriers and adjusters. They do not want to lose the business, but they have no choice.

Of course there are some carriers who are trying to cut down legal expense as much as possible, sometimes unfairly. By doing this they are trying to take advantage of legal firms to get as much out of them for as little cost as possible. Larger firms can sometimes absorb this possible loss just to keep the carrier’s business. But smaller firms that cannot compete are losing a lot of business.

In most cases, the relationship between carrier and legal firm can work if they negotiate an hourly rate, and the associated tasks that go along with it. Tasks need to be clearly defined so no confusion comes when the bill arrives. The legal expense review company should also be informed of certain fees and tasks as negotiated between the carrier and firm so no issues arise. The goal should be to maintain that solid relationship between counsel and carrier, and the associated fees that go along with the handling of a litigated case to overall settlement.(WCxKit)

Legal expense review companies can be a great asset in reducing your overall legal costs when handling litigated files. But the hourly rates and the tasks that go along with it need to be clearly defined between the carrier and the legal firm. Any confusion on any of these issues can lead to a breakdown of the relationship, which benefits no one. By being proactive and establishing clear expectations at the beginning of the lawsuit, both parties can deal fairly with each other. To get good service, you have to pay a fair price.