Peter Venetis, Principal Claims Consultant at ValueMomentum

When social inflation reemerged in 2010s, it brought with it the term nuclear verdict of $10 million or more. Now we’re seeing thermonuclear verdicts where it’s more than double the initial estimated value of nuclear verdict and the ability for plaintiff attorneys and claimants to take a claim that used to be of moderate value to high severity and high severity claims all the way through jury selection through trial into verdict is higher than ever before and that’s all due to aggressive plaintiff tactics, aggrieved jurors and third-party litigation funding. So the ability to manage severity, complexity of claims has changed in that in the last few years.

Within your organization, there’s a lot of things one can do to combat social inflation. Training your adjusters is a great way to make sure that they fully understand the severity of the effects — knowing what types of claims may become nuclear and why, what to look for in terms of whether or not a claim is prone to litigation funding — and then are you able to harness the power of your claim data to be able to provide actionable claim insights by analytics.

Once you’re able to harness the power of your internal data and begin developing analytical insights, you can now take those insights and derive next best action recommendations. Which adjuster should be asigned a claim and why? Which panel firm and attorney at said firm should we sign the claim and why? What’s the likely cycle time for this claim? What’s the probable settlement value? Does this claim have characteristics to become a nuclear or thermonuclear verdict? What can you do to harness the power of AI analytics to bring more actual insights and informed decisioning faster and better in the organization?