CHICAGO – Companies can build resilience into their infrastructure and risk management strategies as they face escalating losses, a panel of experts said.
Rising court awards and settlements and increased weather-related catastrophe losses require proactive risk mitigation efforts to keep them in check, they said during a session Monday at Riskworld, the Risk & Insurance Management Society Inc.’s annual conference.
Companies are increasingly subject to large court awards as verdicts rise, plaintiffs attorneys market their services more aggressively, and more third-party litigation companies enter the market, said Devin Lindsey, Plano, Texas-based director of business development at Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. and Helmsman Risk Control Services.
To combat the trend, companies facing liability lawsuits must ensure that they have systems in place to gather facts and preserve evidence and can bring in operations management, legal, claims management and risk control to fight the suits, he said.
“You’re going to have an entire team that knows what to do to make sure that you have everything that you need for a proper legal defense,” Mr. Lindsey said.
Companies should also act proactively to manage a potential liability claim, said Barry Dillard, Apopka, Florida-based vice president, risk management services, at Walt Disney World Resort and Disney Cruise Lines.
Disney has a compassionate care responder program for people injured on company property, he said.
Under the program, operations leaders, rather than claims technicians, visit the injured people in the hospital to find out what they need and coordinate support for them and their families, Mr. Dillard said.
“We came up with the idea that we would train operations leaders who work in the parks and resorts to be the people who go to the hospital because they’re not there to talk about claims with the person, they’re there to find out what they need,” he said.
In addition to providing improved care, the program allows Disney to gather information to improve its operations, Mr. Dillard said.
With the frequency of hurricanes in Florida, Disney has also become adept at managing climate change risks, he said.
When a storm approaches, the company convenes executives from around the properties at its executive operations center to prepare, Mr. Dillard said. The team supervises the physical preparation of the properties, such as securing rooftop-mounted equipment and ensuring that the people who will be needed to respond to storms are safely housed on-site so they can quickly gain access to areas where there is damage.