What's in your Demand Package?
My office writes and sends 200+ demand packages/settlement letters/demand letters each year. Over the past ten years, we have hired on former adjusters, spoken with those that have left the profession, and tried to hone the messages conveyed for our clients and to insurers. Here are a few items that I see working for my office:
Demand letters that do not demand a sum certain: With few exceptions, none of my demand letters states a dollar amount to settle. My clients always receive a copy of the demand letter sent out, and it has become too cumbersome to inflate a number in the letter only to have to convince our injured client to accept an offer that is lower than a stated amount. Exceptions of course are demand letters seeking policy limits.
Thirty-day deadlines: I have been surprised by the number of attorneys who send demand letters without a deadline to respond. Our demand letters always inform that a deadline will not be extended unless the request is made in writing before the deadline runs and the deadline extension is approved by the client. With perhaps Safeway Insurance being the only exception, nearly 100% of insurers will extend a settlement offer by the deadline I set.
Graphics in Demand Letters: I am a fan of graphics from sites such as www.emedicine.com and www.wheelessonline.com. Wheeless’ Textbook of Orthopaedics provides helpful information regarding injuries that are often explained in plain language.
Diagnosis Codes: By now most know that Allstate uses Colossus to determine values in injury cases. All information I have tells me that it is critical to list and explain all diagnosis codes listed in medical notes, and to have treating doctors list all relevant codes. I use www.flashcode.com extensively to unravel the codes and their meanings. The site is free. In demand letters I send to Allstate, it is not uncommon for me to explain more than a half dozen codes.
If you have any tips that work, send them along to me and we will try to post them here.
Demand letters that do not demand a sum certain: With few exceptions, none of my demand letters states a dollar amount to settle. My clients always receive a copy of the demand letter sent out, and it has become too cumbersome to inflate a number in the letter only to have to convince our injured client to accept an offer that is lower than a stated amount. Exceptions of course are demand letters seeking policy limits.
Thirty-day deadlines: I have been surprised by the number of attorneys who send demand letters without a deadline to respond. Our demand letters always inform that a deadline will not be extended unless the request is made in writing before the deadline runs and the deadline extension is approved by the client. With perhaps Safeway Insurance being the only exception, nearly 100% of insurers will extend a settlement offer by the deadline I set.
Graphics in Demand Letters: I am a fan of graphics from sites such as www.emedicine.com and www.wheelessonline.com. Wheeless’ Textbook of Orthopaedics provides helpful information regarding injuries that are often explained in plain language.
Diagnosis Codes: By now most know that Allstate uses Colossus to determine values in injury cases. All information I have tells me that it is critical to list and explain all diagnosis codes listed in medical notes, and to have treating doctors list all relevant codes. I use www.flashcode.com extensively to unravel the codes and their meanings. The site is free. In demand letters I send to Allstate, it is not uncommon for me to explain more than a half dozen codes.
If you have any tips that work, send them along to me and we will try to post them here.
25 years as a commercial litigator/trial attorney (with trials diminishing over time as the cases got larger) + 2 1/2 years as a mediator leads me to ask -- should lawyers drop the word "demand" from "demand letter." I'm not suggesting the far too wimpy "request," but am suggesting, after mediating a couple of hundred cases, that the ill effects of a plaintiff's opening salvo last for years and always into the mediation or settlement conference. It may well be perfectly fine to start the process of resolving the conflict at a high level of righteous indignation so long as attorneys know what effect it will have and have given thought to other, perhaps less antagonizing ways, of beginning the process -- adversarial OR collaborative. Thougths?
How do you end the demand letter without asking for a sum certain? In other words, what demand do you make, if it is not for sum certain?
I was just looking for an example of a medical malpractice demand letter