How do you manage personal injury case settlements? Are you still using spreadsheets, notebooks, or physical calculators? How do you track all the offers, demands, negotiations, fees, expenses, etc.?
This is neither recommended nor efficient. Even if you use generic case management software to keep track of your settlement, does it let you calculate settlement recovery in the case of multiple plaintiffs, insurance providers, and injury types?
If you have answered ‘Yes’ to the first question and ‘No’ to the second then you are not using the software that is built exclusively for personal injury law firms. Personal Injury software can streamline your settlement process and ensure you didn’t miss a single cent in the settlement calculation and maximize the settlement for your clients.
Calculating the settlement correctly is critical and complex, given that the plaintiff’s life and your firm’s future depends on it. Secondly, the attorney has to consider so many factors, including expenses, liens, medical bills, referral attorney fees, overhead costs, etc.
Well, no more. CloudLex’s Settlement Calculator takes all the complexity out and streamlines your settlement process.
How? You ask
The following are features that help you take your settlement process to the next level:
Track Demands and Offers
With CloudLex®, attorneys can manage all the demands and offers in one place, for single, and even multiple plaintiffs, in a PI case. You can log offers from adjusters against their plaintiff’s insurance, track payment requests, and expenses for each injury type.CloudLex’s Settlement Calculator intuitively shows attorney recovery and plaintiff recovery for each offer and counteroffer.
Anyone with appropriate access permission can check the settlement stage and pick up from where the previous attorney had left off.
No more manually entering the data in multiple software or sheets.
Log Negotiations
Negotiation is a critical stage in the case lifecycle because this is where your client gets justice for all their suffering after the injury, and you receive your fees for all your hard work. It is important to log every negotiation for one or multiple plaintiffs in the case.CloudLex makes it easy for you to log the negotiation and track the settlement calculation for each negotiation and each plaintiff.
With the personal injury settlement calculator, you can calculate both gross and deducted calculations for each negotiation.
For the Gross calculation, “Attorney Recovery” is calculated by applying the attorney fee to the total settlement amount. “Expenses & Disbursements” and “Liens & Medical Bills” are then subtracted from the subtotal, which yields the Plaintiff Recovery.
For the Deducted calculation, “Expenses & Disbursements” and “Liens & Medical Bills” are subtracted from the total settlement amount first. The attorney fee is then applied to this subtotal, which yields “Attorney Recovery.”
You can also choose to include referral attorney fees in the calculations if applicable in a particular case.
Once the negotiations are done, you can mark the calculations as final, CloudLex intuitively gives recovery amounts for all the parties.
Settlement Reports
Settlement offers can come at any stage of the case; therefore, managing partners need to keep track of all the settlements for firm-wide cases, and allocate resources accordingly. That’s where CloudLex’s settlement reports can help you. Managing partners and attorneys can use firm-wide settlement reports to analyze settlement amounts, outstanding amounts, total paid amounts, demand, offers, and closing dates so your team can follow-up on time.
This report gives you a picture of your firm’s earnings and settlement activities in their entirety.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a Settlement Calculator?
The Settlement Calculator helps you manage all the demands and offers in one place for single, and even multiple, plaintiffs in a personal injury case. It also enables you to track offers, payment requests, and expenses for each injury type. Our Settlement Calculator intuitively shows attorney recovery and plaintiff recovery for each offer and counteroffer.
What are Gross Calculations?
For the Gross calculations, “Attorney Recovery” is calculated by applying the attorney fee to the total settlement amount. “Expenses & Disbursements” and “Liens & Medical Bills” are then subtracted from the subtotal, which yields the Plaintiff Recovery.
The “Gross Amount” for: “Attorney Recovery” can be calculated using the following formula:
Attorney Recovery = {(Settlement Amount) * (Attorney Fee Percentage)} – {(Expenses & Disbursements) + (Liens & Medical Bills)}
If there is an “Attorney Referral Fee”, then the formula is:
Attorney Recovery = [{(Settlement Amount) * (Attorney Fee Percentage)} – {(Expenses & Disbursements) + (Liens & Medical Bills)}] * (1 – Attorney Referral Fee Percentage)
What are Deducted Calculations?
For the Deducted calculations, “Expenses & Disbursements” and “Liens & Medical Bills” are subtracted from the total settlement amount first. The attorney fee is then applied to this subtotal, which yields “Attorney Recovery”.
The “Deducted Amount” for “Attorney Recovery” can be calculated using the following formula:
Attorney Recovery = {(Settlement Amount) – {(Expenses & Disbursements) + (Liens & Medical Bills)} * (Attorney Fee Percentage)
If there is an “Attorney Referral Fee”, then the formula is:
Attorney Recovery = [{(Settlement Amount) – {(Expenses & Disbursements) + (Liens & Medical Bills)} * (Attorney Fee Percentage)] * (1 – Attorney Referral Fee Percentage)
