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Defense side insurance defense. In my experience, the ball is largely in your court. Can you be more specific about what stage the hold up is occurring at?
You have to keep following up in writing with some defense lawyers to get what you want in discovery. Many will stall because other stuff is hot. You’re at a distinct advantage as the plaintiff by being able to control the tempo of the case. Be professional, let them know you’ve been patient and asking for things without filing any motions, and would appreciate their cooperation ASAP. I try to keep those types of plaintiffs lawyers happy because I appreciate the courtesy and sportsmanship so to speak. If they are assholes to me, I’ll just fight back harder, object more and stall more. Discovery fights only increase my billables, and the other side rarely gains anything I wasnt gonna turn over anyway. Most of the big time plaintiffs lawyers know this, and are really good at getting what they want, when they want it without being a dick
100% agreed. Especially with commercial policy cases, OC never provides what they should in the first answers to discovery. You have to push the ball and get the court involved if necessary.
Depends on the stage of the case. If it’s pre-suit get the medicals and consider a med pack after review. If it’s in litigation make the calls and push discovery forward
I have a visual operations workflow on a big whiteboard for my litigation cases, with the cases written under its current stage. The stages are:
1. File Complaint (serve with Discovery Requests)
2. Waiting for Answer
3. Compel Written Discovery (if it's a complicated commercial/premises/non-typical MVA case)
4. P/D Depositions
5. Mediation
6. Doctor/Expert/Witness Depos
7. Trial Ready
This lets you see the big picture for all of your cases and what's the next thing that needs to get done.
Whenever I finish something, I think “ok what’s next?” And I docket and plan for when that gets done. Never have a case where you don’t have any “to-do” tasks listed. This lets cases stall and it’s harder to go back in the case and figure out where you left off and what needs to be done.
Got discovery: review? 201k? Make list of ppl you want to depose? When you have your list - start scheduling for those deps.
If you’re. Pre-Lit at some point you need to decide if you’re going to file the case. By year 3 I’ve learned that you’re not going to get too far explaining the nuances of negligence, damages, or evidence to adjusters. Most of them are not bright nor do that have much authority on a file to do anything but extend offers within a budget.
If you’re in litigation you need to literally be relentless.
Plaintiffs are pretty much the only side pushing the gas pedal.
Get your discovery responses.
Compel what you need. Follow through with your motion to compel.
Then as soon as you can review their production start setting depositions. If they won’t give you a date, most states have a procedure where you can notice the Depos and if OC quashes they need to include a date defendant is available.
File suit, take the 30(b)(6) if applicable, depose doctors, move to mediate and be ready to push for all those and ultimately be willing to try any case you are assigned.
I'm not really in the field, what is the reasoning for the 12(b)(6)?
Bunch of good advice here but take it from me, you need a plan otherwise things languish. Every case we have (and I have a lot of cases) gets a case plan. The case plan tells me what the case is about and has all the relevant info. It also lists the discovery I’m going to do and against whom. I summarize the meds as well as some of the key points we discover in discovery. As the case progresses, it becomes a roadmap. I write down all the things I need to prove my case (based on the law and jury instructions) in one columns and I use separate columns to indicate where and how I will get the proof—like what method and under what evidence code it will get in. You will never run out of things to do and you will likely get rock solid cases ready for resolution one way or the other.
It’s a basic word doc with a multi-row, multi-column table. Nothing fancy but very practical.
Keep moving forward with the litigation as others have suggested, but always keep the option of settlement on the table. Manage your client’s expectations and let them know that although you may have demanded the policy limit, the true value of their claim is probably much less. Also, litigation is stressful, unpredictable, and can drag on for a very long time. A lot of clients will agree that it isn’t worth the hassle to continue with the litigation all the way to the eve of trial just for a few extra grand.