Attorney Representation Rates, Liability Litigation Rates Rising

Litigation circumstances within the trade proceed to evolve with illustration charges, litigation charges and litigation prices rising, in keeping with a brand new report from Sedgwick.

The report portrays a difficult and evolving authorized panorama in 2024.

Among the many key findings within the Sedgwick report is that legal professional illustration has been rising the final 5 years, with legal professional illustration charges for normal legal responsibility bodily damage claims rising from 14.1% in 2022 to 17.2% in 2023. Charges for auto legal responsibility bodily damage claims elevated to 47.7% in 2023, up 2% from 2022, in keeping with the report.

The report attributes this to “aggressive multi-platform promoting” by the plaintiffs’ bar, citing a current examine by the Insurance coverage Analysis Council that reveals customers are seeing extra legal professional promoting.

Different findings within the report embrace:

• It has been a yr because the passage of HB 837 in Florida, which extends limits on one-way legal professional charges, assignments of advantages, and different provisions to most forms of insurance coverage claims, and impacts of the laws are anticipated to proceed by way of 2024. There was a rush to the courthouse to keep away from the impression of HB 837 in March 2023, which broke the earlier month-to-month document for lawsuits set in Might 2021. Statewide, 280,122 new instances had been filed in March 2023, a 127% improve over the prior document.
• A U.S. Authorities Accountability Workplace report reveals the present apply of third-party litigation funding gained a stronger foothold in 2010 and has grown shortly resulting from lack of regulation. That is prone to change as TPLF comes beneath extra scrutiny by the judicial system and state legislatures over issues surrounding nationwide safety threats and moral implications.
• A well-organized plaintiff’s bar is evolving its methods aimed toward inflaming juries to maximise outcomes. They’ve created podcasts, webinars, seminars and even developed university-like coaching institutes.

Sedgwick is a worldwide supplier of claims administration, loss adjusting and technology-enabled enterprise providers.