You have an opportunity. Right now. While you are working from home. While you are most likely to be able to reach people by telephone and actually engage in a discussion about pending claims.

Teddy Snyder

Look over your file inventory. Which are the claims with high monthly expenses? What about the old dog claims that have been around forever? Would you like to close that in pro per claim?

Reach out to parties about settling pending claims. Offer to participate in a remote mediation. Video mediation lets parties negotiate jointly and also in separate caucus rooms without physically leaving their homes.

In mediation, people need not retreat from their stated negotiation positions, yet confidentially discuss a route to resolution with the mediator.

Claims are down, right? High unemployment means there are fewer people working and fewer people getting hurt. There are fewer cars on the road. Essential workers must still commute, but the rest of the population is mostly sheltering in place.

But then there are those COVID-19 claims. Sickened workers are entitled to coverage. Small businesses are making claims on their business interruption policies. Open roads have encouraged reckless driving, which worsens the outcomes of the inevitable collisions.

Inevitably, there is going to be an uptick in claims. The time to reduce the pending claims inventory is now.

Attorney Teddy Snyder mediates workers' compensation cases throughout California. She can be contacted through WCMediator.com.