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your demand reasonable. A “pie in the sky” demand (without some reasonable basis) will tell the claim representative that you do not really know the value of the case and you may also set yourself up for a low ball offer. This type of negotia- tion technique is often exhausting and counterproductive. Additionally, make sure on your catastrophic cases to make a demand that does not exceed the allow- able damages with the applicable cap; otherwise you are telegraphing to the adjuster, you are out of your league.


A Maryland Association For Justice


Case Evaluation Clinic Wednesday, April 22, 2009


HAVE A PANEL OF SEASONED LAWYERS EVALUATE YOUR CASES Consult with the experts at the MAJ Case Evaluation Roundtable:


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 Analyze the merits  Discuss legal elements  Determine the damages  Develop your strategy


 Discuss the value  Discover ways to Improve your case


BRING ONE CASE, BRING THEM ALL! This is YOUR 55 Minutes


Date: Wednesday, April 22, 2009 Time:


1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., Last session begins at 4:00 p.m. Each evaluation session lasts 55 minutes


Place: MAJ Office 6240 Old Dobbin Lane, Ste. 100 Baltimore, MD 21045


Fee:


$150 for MAJ Members $250 for Non-Members


Registration Deadline: Wednesday, April 15, 2009 Call (410) 872-0990 or


Email: michele@marylandassociationforjustice.com 38 Trial Reporter


Send Out the Demand Package with Complaint, Discovery and Your Expert Designations


Most insurance adjusters have be-


tween 100 and 300 pending files at any given time. The response time on de- mand packages varies greatly between insurance companies and individual adjusters. You may want to take the extra time to prepare the pleadings in advance and send them off with your


demand package: it will usually get the attention of your adjuster. More impor- tantly, if you do file suit, your case will be ready to go. In our demand letter, we ask the adjuster to call us within 10 days of receiving it. If we do not hear from the adjuster within 10 days, we will call to confirm that they have received the demand package and ask how long they need to evaluate the case. We then set up a system to call the adjusters on their promised evaluation schedule to keep the case moving along.


Don’t Get Caught Up In the “Times Specials” Math


The idea that a case should be valued


by some multiplier of a client’s specials favors the insurance company when the plaintiff ’s attorney looks at raw data and is influenced by it, especially when attorneys do not do the things they need to do to win cases and maximize the settlement offer. It also provides statistics that work against all of us as plaintiff ’s attorneys. There are too many lawyers who will never try a case and will simply take what they can get in settlements as opposed to trying the case and allowing a jury to award a fair amount. Do not let their settlements become a part of your math.


Know When, Where and How To File Suit


As a rule, we file suit as soon as settle-


ment negotiations fail. In some cases, the carrier will call you back after you have obtained service on the defendant and increase their offer now that your case is in suit. It is good to keep track of which insurance companies increase of- fers post-suit and which do not. In some cases, we file suit contemporaneously with sending our demand package for this very reason. If you are on your TLA listserv, you


know some jurisdictions are better than others. If you have options of where to file, make sure you pick the jurisdiction that is going to be the most plaintiff friendly. If you are not sure, there are a


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