ESS Settlement Services

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The Importance of Being Well Prepared for Settlement Negotiations

October 20, 2015 by Randy Levine 1 Comment

medicare lienWe are now a few weeks into Settlement Season and the pace of our consulting business has noticeably quickened. But there is one point we want to make about why it is important not to wait until the last minute to give us a call. In fact, it is far better to reach out to us at an earlier stage, well in advance of conducting a first mediation session or the formal commencement of settlement talks.

The reason for this is pretty simple: it’s far better for us to be brought into a new situation too early than too late. When we are brought in too late in the process the cake may already be too far baked for us to do as much as we can in improving the flavor. In other words, the more up to speed we are in terms of the particulars of any given lawsuit (and the health care profile of the personal injury plaintiff), the more benefit we can provide when it comes to planning and structuring a settlement in order to maximize the long-term benefits both for you and your client.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Law Firm Management, lien resolution Tagged With: Medicare, Medicare Liens, settlements

Some Things You May Find Behind a Super Lawyer’s Success

October 12, 2015 by Randy Levine Leave a Comment

New York Super LawyerLast week the most recent listings for Super Lawyers in the New York Metro area were published as a special supplement in the Saturday edition of the New York Times. Now Sunday morning is usually a time reserved for being with the family but this weekend, much to my wife’s annoyance, I took the occasion to do a little homework by giving a close look at the listings.

First of all, I want to extend our hearty congratulations to all of our clients who made the grade as Super Lawyers this year. It’s always nice to be recognized for your hard work. And while being a Super Lawyer may not carry quite the cachet as being designated a Super Hero, the listings are actually based on a combination of peer recognition and professional achievement, including peer nominations and evaluations, as well as independent research done by the Super Lawyer staff. In other words, it means a lot more than a simple pat on the back.

What was particularly striking to me is how the firms we work with dominated the Super Lawyer listings for the personal injury practice area on the plaintiffs’ side, both for general negligence and medical malpractice. In fact, in both those areas, reading through the listings was almost like reading through our client roster. It made me proud to realize that — whatever else these firms might have in common — behind a lot of this year’s personal injury Super Lawyers you could find the same structured settlement consultants, ESS SETTLEMENT SERVICES. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Law Firm Management Tagged With: New York Attorneys, New York Lawyers, Super Lawyers

Tis the Season (for settling lawsuits)

October 6, 2015 by Randy Levine Leave a Comment

ESS negotation roadmapSo we begin the fourth quarter, which in the litigation world we like to refer to as Settlement Season. Although each year is different, there seems to be a long-standing pattern that insurance carriers tend to push to settle a lot of cases in the last three months of the year.

No doubt part of the reason has to do with the peculiarities of the insurance business. Not that we are experts in the accounting and other arcane business practices of major insurance companies, but our basic understanding is that insurers, like any other company facing contingent liabilities, have to take reserves against their potential litigation exposure. Depending on the way they have established their reserves, this could create a significant incentive to settle claims prior to year-end, at least in cases where a settlement can be struck within the insurer’s target range, thus freeing up some portion of the reserve. From an accounting point of view, freeing up reserves has the effect of generating income for the insurer, which in many cases would have the ancillary benefit of translating into a better year end bonus for those in charge of managing the pool of risk. As in any negotiation, it pays to consider the potential motivations of your adversary before you sit down at the negotiating table.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Law Firm Management, Mediations, structured settlements Tagged With: settlements

How to Grow a Multimillion Dollar Law Practice

August 11, 2015 by Randy Levine Leave a Comment

tree plantingWe are now well into the dog days of August. The usually bustling New York Supreme Court building down on Centre Street has taken on a peaceful air (more typical of a sleepy rural courthouse) and for the next few weeks there will hardly be a single judge left sitting on the bench. And we hope that means most of our clients have temporarily traded in their pinstripe suits for tennis whites, golf slacks or other suitable vacation-wear.

But wherever you happen to be spending your summer holiday this year, in addition to hoping that it’s warm and sunny, we wanted to take a moment to remind you that the downtime of a few weeks away from the office presents a great opportunity to take stock of how your law firm is doing. With distance from the daily grind, you now actually have a chance to do some thinking about what can steps can be taken in order to really improve your practice, so you don’t feel like you’re always playing catch-up or working from behind the eight ball.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Law Firm Management Tagged With: practice management, time management

155,000 Reasons Why Lawyers Should Consider Outsourcing Medicare Lien Resolution

March 16, 2015 by Randy Levine 1 Comment

medicare lienIf your law firm still handles Medicare lien resolution in-house, there are now 155,000 reasons for you to consider looking for a new solution. That’s because later this year Medicare is rolling out sweeping revisions to the billing codes that must be used in connection with Medicare reimbursement and lien-related work.

The Medicare bureaucracy is often reviled for its complexity and inefficiency. Well, it’s about to get a whole lot worse. As of Oct. 1, 2015 the ICD-9 codes, which have been in use since 1975, are going to be replaced with the next generation, ICD-10. The change over entails an exponential increase in complexity, moving from the 17,000 treatment codes covered by the current ICD-9 scheme to as many as 155,000 treatment codes possible under ICD-10. As Medicare explains it, the massive overhaul is necessary to ensure more accurate billing and to better reflect the full range of technology, diagnoses and procedures used in hospitals today.

This means that hospitals have to modernize EVERYTHING relating to their billing systems and procedures. The billers have to be retrained, the computers have to be upgraded and no, this won’t come cheap. The President-elect of the American Medical Association, Steven J. Stack called the change “a massive unfunded mandate that comes at a time when physicians are trying to meet several other federal technology requirements and risk penalties if they fail to do so.” [Read more…]

Filed Under: Law Firm Management, lien resolution, Medicare Tagged With: Health care, ICD-10, ICD-9, lien resolution, Medical Law, Medicare, Medicare Liens

Are you operating a S.M.A.R.T. law firm?

January 19, 2015 by Brian Schachter Leave a Comment

S.M.A.R.T. law firmIt’s January! With 2015 off and rolling it’s time to plan for the rest of the year. It’s time for businesses to set goals and implement strategies to achieve them. At ESS Settlements, we are setting our S.M.A.R.T. goals for the year. If you’re a law firm, don’t tune out because in 2015, you’re also a business. Law isn’t just a profession anymore. The practice of law has become the business of law. Success is not just about winning cases, it’s also turning a profit, earning a living and dealing with budgets, revenues and costs. We see many lawyers not thriving financially, not because they are bad lawyers but because they are poor at running a business.

In order to succeed lawyers should be smart and set S.M.A.R.T. goals. This means that goals should fit the following characteristics:

Specific: General goals are hard to work toward and achieve in any tangible way. For example, if the goal is “to network more,” what does that even mean? It’s too vague. A specific goal would be to join a networking group and attend events twice a week.

Measurable: There must be concrete criteria for evaluating progress. Making three new contacts a month would be a way to quantify success. At the end of a month, you can ask yourself “did I make three contacts this month?” and if you did, you’ve achieved your goal!

Attainable: If you just wander the streets blindly without a plan or never actually leave your office because you’re swamped with work, there’s no way for you to actually network with three new people every month. It’s nearly impossible! Make sure your goal is something that you’re both willing and able to work for within the constraints of your job, relationships and other responsibilities. Also, don’t be afraid to aim high, but keep your goals realistic. It’s reasonable to expect to make three new contacts in a month, but aiming for 20 might not work.

Relevant: How does your goal drive your business or firm forward? What are you trying to accomplish? Your goal should contribute to the success of your business in some way, otherwise it may not be a good use of time and resources or you may not be motivated to work for it. By networking at events, you promote your firm, generate leads which may become clients or referral sources and meet people you may want to hire, if the need arises.

Timely: Your goal must be grounded by an actual timeframe. “Someday” is not a deadline, but by May 1, for example works. Deadlines motivate people to take action immediately, while vague end points enable people to stretch even the simplest tasks out indefinitely. Being successful means actually getting stuff done.

We wish everyone the best for the rest of 2015 and encourage S.M.A.R.T. business!

Filed Under: Law Firm Management Tagged With: Business Planning, Goal Setting, Law Firm Management, S.M.A.R.T. Law Firm

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