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Looking for the Lesson: Using Closed Case Data To Improve Future Performance

Published on Feb 14, 2023
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When was the last time you took the time to review closed case data? If you’re like most leaders, it’s hard enough to find the time to manage all of your active cases, let alone review closed cases! Still, it’s so important to make the time to review what actually happened from beginning to end. This data tells the whole story, including exactly where and how we need to improve.

Closed case data tells us not only what happened but what is likely to happen unless we take action to change it. While every case you handle is unique, when reviewed in mass, you can begin to identify patterns, bottlenecks, and problematic processes. When approached thoughtfully, closed case data can be an incredibly powerful tool for law firm leadership. It serves as a highly effective predictor of what is to come. In this week’s Vista blog, we’ll explore some of the key metrics you should be evaluating from your closed cases.

AREAS OF INTEREST

Intake

Intake is the lifeblood of a personal injury law firm. Identifying and quickly and proactively addressing any issues that exist in this department is vital to your firm’s overall success. In the intake department, you should be reviewing closed cases with fee percentages quarterly to ensure proper screening practices. If you know what percent of cases you should be closing with a fee, you can adjust your screening criteria at the intake stage accordingly. When evaluating the data, ask yourself questions like:

  • Are you signing up too many cases that later close with no fee? If so, your screening criteria may be too broad. Consider tightening your screening criteria in order to increase your batting average. Conversely, if you are closing over 90% of all cases with a fee, you may have room to widen the net and accept more complicated fact patterns at the intake stage. Making these types of adjustments can dramatically improve your bottom line as a business.
  • Do you track the reasons your wanted leads were lost? If so, have you noticed a trend? Closely analyzing data patterns like these can help you zoom in on lost opportunities or resource leaks. Tracking and reviewing this data is key to identifying why your conversion rate isn’t higher.
  • Once intakes are closed out, are you reviewing data by the intake manager? Doing so can help you identify your closers, those people who are able to land the leads you want. It can also help you identify those team members who may require more training on sales tactics or empathy.
  • Taking the time to look back on intakes that were referred out to identify trends can be a useful exercise as well. Is there a case type generating a large amount of leads for your firm that you consistently refer out? Might it be beneficial to bring that case type in house? Looking back on the data can help you make those critical business decisions.

Case management

In the case management department, closed case data such as time on desk, average case fee, and rate tell us all about how efficiently teams are performing. Mistakes made in this department can undermine the success of your intake department. Don’t forget that cases need to be nurtured from the first call to the disbursement. When analyzing your closed cases data, focus in on key case management metrics and ask yourself questions like:

  • Do you separate the average time on desk (TOD) metric by pre-litigation and litigation? Knowing your baseline in each case phase can help you to identify outliers or areas for opportunity to provide more efficiency. Note: take the time to identify what “time on desk” means. If you are only tracking it from case open date until the settlement date, you may be missing opportunities to create post-settlement efficiencies. A lag from settlement to disbursement not only affects the client experience, but it also may be a diagnosable problem!
  • Does your pre-litigation time on desk (from open to closed) average under 12 months? If so, you may be too focused on efficiency at the expense of building value, and the time it takes to do so. Taking the time to ensure your clients are receiving the treatment they need is critical. You’ll also want to train your team to identify value drivers in a case, like MRIS, injections, or surgeries.
  • Do you know your average case fee for each case type? You should! Establishing a baseline can help in a variety of ways and help identify your most profitable case types. Do you also measure it comparatively by attorney? Again, you should. You likely have attorneys with different risk tolerance. Knowing their average fees can help with mentorship pairings and case valuation committees. These are metrics with which all firm leaders should be familiar.
  • Do you measure and set goals to improve your case “rate?” Finding the rate is a simple equation: average case fee divided by TOD in months. Rate measures efficiency but also measures effectiveness because it accounts for the value added every month that a case stays open. Taking the time to measure case rate and using that data to establish goals and identify areas ripe for improvement could help your law firm reach its growth goals.

Understanding the process and the payoff

At Vista we strongly recommend making the time to track and review closed case data. For every firm with which we work, the process of analyzing closed case data reveals powerful insights and eye-opening findings. Through the collection of that critical data, firms can begin to better understand what’s working, what’s not, and where they may be able to make easy adjustments in order to gain big yardage. Oftentimes as leaders, it’s the moments when we take time to look back that we better understand how to move forward. Once we know where we are, we can decide exactly where we want to go and create better strategies to get there. If you want more insight on how to approach a closed case data evaluation project, you can reach out to our team by clicking the button below.

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