CyberSettle.Com - Making negotiations efficient and fun.
It had to happen. The Internet, mother of communications tools, now has a new way of negotiating settlement in clear liability personal injury cases. A company formed by two personal injury lawyers, one a member of the plaintiff's bar, and the other an insurance defense type, threatens to take over the dominant role in the way large and small insurance companies and corporate defendants settle the small to medium personal injury claim.
Calling itself CyberSettle, this interactive, secure site is now being used by thousands of insurance companies, claimants and other entities to negotiate , and settle, disputes in which the main issue is the value of the claim.
CyberSettle.Com bills itself as the Internet's first dispute resolution system. The company was formed in 1996 when a couple of lawyers on either side of a case decided to stop the posturing of format settlement negotiations, and write down on a piece of paper what they each were willing to settle for. The amount was to remain secret, but the bids, given to a Court Clerk, were to be opened by the Clerk, and, if within $5,000.00 of each other, would settle the case. Surprise, surprise, the bids were within $1,000 and the case settled. Generally, plaintiff's attorneys and adjusters or their counsel are very knowledgeable about the value of a personal injury claim. However, the current system for settling such disputes is cumbersome, and unwieldy, and often, lawsuits are filed when a case could have been settled much earlier in the process.
CyberSettle.Com has a patent pending, web-based system for acting as the middleman between insurance companies and other defense entities, and the plaintiffs and claimants and their lawyers on the other side. When an insurance company registers a claim on the web-site, it posts three settlement bids, notifies the plaintiff, claimant or opposing lawyer that the site has the bids, and offers to negotiate the claim at the site. If the Plaintiff accepts, and signs the CyberSettle agreement, it accepts the binding nature of the negotiations , and places its 3 bids. Each bid is matched against the similar bid in the same round, and, if the demands are within an agreed range (typically 30% or $5,000), the case settles.
CyberSettle.Com is strictly a middleman, and charges the insurance company $25 to register a claim, and the parties $200 if the case settles. While the CyberSettle agreement, and suggested releases have not, to the FutureLawyer's knowledge, been court tested, it is likely that they would be binding pre-suit settlement agreements. Of course, complex cases, or cases in which liability is seriously questioned are not suitable for the CyberSettle process. But, the garden variety claim is well suited to this method of alternative dispute resolution. Would such an arrangement freeze lawyers out of the claims process? Probably not. Plaintiffs and claimants still need to have an expert view of the settlement value of their case, and insurance companies would likely feel more comfortable settling on line with represented persons.
The company claims that the password-protected site is completely secure, and privacy is ensured. Access to the system is made available 24-7, and thus, the telephone tag negotiations are eliminated. To the extent that CyberSettle.Com reduces the cost of settling claims, the system promises to be a boon to insurance companies and claimants alike. Since 1998, the company claims to have processed more than 3,800 claims, and claims a settlement rate of over forty per cent (40%). Given mediation settlement averages of about Ten per cent (10%), the rate is outstanding. The company counts over 20 major insurance companies among its customers, and some are rolling out nationwide use of the system. Could the site be adapted to more complicated settlement issues? In its present form, probably not. The system is tied to a numbers game, in which both sides are merely arguing about how much a claim is worth. However, it is easy to see that on-line settlement negotiations are going to be an increasingly large percentage of the claims process. CyberSettle.Com (http://www.cybersettle.com) is an Internet start-up that could get up and go all the way.
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