January 27, 2021 – What is social inflation? If you’re a stat junkie who happens to work in or around the personal injury litigation arena, have I got a white paper for you!

Last June, the Insurance Research Council published Social Inflation: Evidence and Impact on Property-Casualty Insurance. This fascinating 18-pager is very readable. Further, it lays bare the impact evolving societal trends have on the rising cost of settlement and verdict values. By extension, social inflation impacts insurance industry profitability.

Every policyholder, claims handler, actuary, lawyer, and citizen who reads this paper will get a helpful glimpse of the future.

Anger Driving Claims Costs?

Personal injury lawsuit filings seem to correlate directly to societal anger.

One of the more interesting tidbits is the observed link between Americans’ general anger and their tendency to file personal injury lawsuits.

Recent Gallop polling suggests nearly one in four people are angry on any given day – the highest level in more than a decade.

No analysis was performed indicating the source of individuals’ anger.

A Role for Structured Settlements

Because of their unique ability to match future dollars with future needs, structured settlements can be especially helpful in addressing another social inflation trend. The so-called “nuclear” verdicts, or those exceeding $10 million, have emerged as a major threat to long-term insurance company viability.

With personal injury filings expected to continue increasing and nuclear verdicts a statistical reality, structured settlement usage is expected to continue serving a vital role in dispute resolution.

Perhaps the biggest stunner of the paper is this statistic: Average jury verdicts against trucking firms have increased a whopping 654% since 2012 and now top $17 million!

With actuarial-adjusted pricing available for those with severe injuries, structured settlements permit the negotiating parties to resolve their claims more cost-effectively before trial.

Somber Final Thought

It’s worth mentioning all the data collected for this paper predated the emergence of COVID-19. It will be interesting to see the pandemic’s impact on social inflation going forward.

Photo by Icons8 Team on Unsplash

Sixth in a series of blog posts dedicated to helping clients decide when a structured settlement should be considered.

Today’s Installment: Taxable Damages

May 21, 2019 – If you’re a regular follower of our educational content, you already know there are few subjects we’re more passionate about than structured settlements for claims and lawsuits involving taxable damages.

We’ve studied it, researched it, created analytical tools to help clients make more informed decisions about it, presented MCLE classes to attorneys about it, written articles for national and regional periodicals about it, and complained to Congress about it.

In short, if you need help on this topic, you’ve come to the right place.

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Fourth in a series of blog posts dedicated to helping clients decide when a structured settlement should be considered.

Today’s Installment: Post-Verdict Negotiations

May 15, 2019 – When personal injury lawsuits are adjudicated, it’s a safe bet that one side or the other will be displeased with the end result. Usually it’s just a matter of degrees of disappointment.

Once the jury renders its decision – whether a defense verdict, one of the “runaway” variety in favor of the plaintiff, or somewhere in between – litigation participants have few choices about what happens next regardless of which side of the v. they stand.

They can accept the verdict, appeal it, or seek to compromise the decision.

In all but a few rare instances, a structured settlement can be a powerful, if underused, tool at this phase. Yet surprisingly, many claims professionals and attorneys (plaintiff and defense) alike incorrectly assume that a structured settlement is not possible once a verdict is rendered.

While it is true that a final judgment with no appealable issues triggers constructive receipt and therefore cannot be structured, in most cases structured settlements are not only possible but quite useful following a trial.

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Second in a series of blog posts dedicated to helping clients decide when a structured settlement should be considered

Today’s Installment: Fatalities

May 7, 2019 – “Death is a crisis that all families encounter, and it is recognized as the most stressful life event families face . . .”

The preceding quote was excerpted from Chapter 4, “Death, Dying, and Grief in Families” (Murray, Toth & Clinkenbeard, 2005), of Families & Change: Coping with Stressful Events and Transitions, a best-selling text of compilation scholarly research on a topic most of us would sooner avoid.

No death can be minimized, but the unexpected, sudden death of a loved one leaves families feeling especially violated as they struggle for comfort that is too slow in arriving and acceptance of a new reality they never asked for.

The ensuing grief takes a significant emotional toll on psyches and many families fracture to the point of permanent dysfunction as a result.

When survivors file insurance claims and wrongful death lawsuits due to negligence alleged to have caused a fatality, they experience a new set of stressors inherent in the litigation process which can prolong their suffering and worsen their already-fragile sense of being.

And that’s just the emotional toll.

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