Every lawsuit should be measured with specific goals and deadlines. If you don’t measure deadlines and goals in your lawsuits, you won’t spot problems.
- Are your lawsuits taking too long?
- Are you spending too much $ on disbursements?
- Have you set realistic settlement goals and values?
Even when you ring the bell with a big settlement/judgment, it’s not a complete success if the lawsuit took too long or you spent too much $ on disbursements. There are three major goals that should be measured in every lawsuit:
(1) Length of the Lawsuit;
(2) Legal Fee to Disbursement Ratio; and
(3) Settlement Goal
At the end of every lawsuit, have your assistant complete the “Case Debriefing” and sit down with your team to review the numbers. Celebrate moments of progress and dissect the mistakes. Find out why the case took too long and discuss with your team what you can do to prevent the mistakes.
By way of example, we use the form, “Our Case Debriefing”, to review the success and failure of every lawsuit.
Our Case Debriefing
Goal #1: Length of the Lawsuit
Date of Filing of Lawsuit: December 5, 2014
Date of Settlement/Judgment: June 17, 2016
Length of Lawsuit: 18 months, 12 days
Goal: 18 Months
Goal Accomplished? No
# of Days Past Date of Goal: 12 days
Goal #2: Legal Fee to Disbursement Ratio
Disbursements: $13,378
Legal Fee: $126,234 (after deducting referral fee)
Ratio of Fee to Disbursements: 9.43/1
Goal: 10/1
Goal Accomplished? No
% of Ratio Below Goal: 0.57% (10/1 minus 9.43/1=0.57%)
Goal #3: Settlement Goal
Settlement Value: $750k
Settlement Goal: $900k
Actual Settlement: $675k
Goal Accomplished? No
Amount of $ Below Goal: $225k
