Daniel Stark takes a more unique approach in client advocacy compared to many law firms. Jonathan Stark, one of the founding partners of the law firm, recently sat down with Advocate Capital, Inc. to discuss two unique processes that keep our clients from getting screwed by big insurance companies – Full Settlement Value and Big Case Review.
Full Settlement Value
Over a decade ago, Daniel Stark instituted a new method to determine a case’s value. Inspired by attorney, Chad Dudley, Full Settlement Value, or “FSV” as our attorneys call it, is a process where a committee of attorneys evaluate the facts of a case to determine its settlement value. In other words, they ask themselves, “What is the full amount that we can recover for our client?
This step is critical because it allows younger attorneys to learn about a case’s value from veteran attorneys on our team. It also allows every attorney in that evaluation to bring their own perspective on how to achieve full value for our client. Without FSV, many attorneys’ only frame of reference when determining case value could be what an insurance adjuster is offering – which is almost always far too little!
This method of evaluating cases ensures two important things:
- Our attorneys have a culture of shared experience, advocacy, and communication.
- We get maximum value for all of our clients. We believe that for every case, full value matters.
Full Settlement Value not only makes us better lawyers. It makes our team more cohesive, united, and prepared to fight for each and every client.
Big Case Review
In more recent years, we instituted a second process called Big Case Review. According to Jonathan, this has been the most impactful strategy in the history of the firm.
One of the challenges that many law firms face is recognizing value in cases that may not fit a traditional pattern of a “big case.” Some firms may not see the potential value in a case and will be willing to take the first few offers that an insurance company gives. However, to stay true to our core value of keeping our clients from getting screwed by big insurance, we don’t stop there.
During Big Case Review, the handling attorney meets with our senior and board-certified litigators and managing partner. Together, they ensure that we have pursued every possible avenue of advocacy in a case. Essentially, we leave no stone unturned on these cases that have the potential to be huge. This strategy has led to life changing outcomes for our clients, and it’s made us zealous advocates for all of them.
Both of these processes have led to 5x, 10x, and even 12x larger settlements than that of an insurance company’s initial offer. These results can sound like outliers, but we truly believe that the systems we’ve put in place and the hard work of our team make these outcomes not only repeatable, but very probable.
Full Settlement Value and Big Case Review make us better lawyers and relentless advocates for our clients. Most importantly, they help us get remarkable results and ensure that our clients aren’t getting screwed by big insurance.
