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Information Management
Managing the client
A professional association was preparing to enter settlement negotiations on a matter involving funding. The legal team needed the ability to evaluate the possible impact of proposed arrangements on different groups within the association, communicate these, take feedback and formulate counter-proposals. A wealth of details were being exchanged, and staying on top of them was consuming considerable resources even in the early, relatively slow stage of the conflict. It was entirely foreseeable that managing the flow of information would be extremely difficult in the negotiation phase when the volume would increase and time would be more limited.
Case Lab was engaged only a few days before the beginning of face-to-face negotiations, and was able to quickly design and create a database of proposals loaded with all the communications and details. The database was accessible online in real-time as the case progressed, enabling everyone involved to communicate effectively and see the big picture. These capabilities allowed the team to analyze proposals in seconds, not days, to be more agile and responsive than their negotiating counterparts, and to make higher-quality consensus decisions more quickly. With these advantages our client steered the course of the negotiations and secured a highly favourable agreement.
Managing the claim
A coalition was litigating a human rights case affecting several thousand workers and their legal team needed to calculate economic damages that occurred over several years. However, the information to make such an analysis wasn’t readily available in any coherent form: each member of the coalition had some data, some was public information, some was with other organizations, and some had to be gleaned from secondary sources. Because the team lacked the capabilities to compile all the data, it wasn’t even known whether vital information was missing.
Case Lab began by consolidating all of this available data in a central database. We soon concluded that, given the information gaps and quality of data, there wouldn’t be any way to calculate the damages in the manner the team wanted to. However, with all the data centralized and useable, we were able to work with the team to develop alternate methods for estimating the damages. The alternate methods proved to be very persuasive in the case and, as a result, were ultimately used as the basis for a settlement.
Managing the class
The court had just certified an employment case as a class action, and counsel needed to get dozens of pieces of information from each member of the class, calculate mitigation figures, and account for discrepancies between individual claims and employer records.
Case Lab was engaged because counsel was struggling with geographically dispersed class members, the volume of information and numerous inconsistencies. We set up a secured internet site where members could fill in their information, verify documents, write responses to the employer’s records, attach any relevant documents and provide any other supporting data. The information was consolidated in a database that could produce reports, identify missing information, find discrepancies and test settlement scenarios. As a result, counsel had total control over the facts and was able to negotiate and allocate an excellent settlement.
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