Promising times are dawning for customers who have lost capital on securities, for example, or who feel they have been misadvised when buying a car. Today, specialized young companies offer them legal prosecution at a flat rate. They use databases and algorithms and are as cost-effective as they are promising. Injured parties hope to obtain their rights quickly, easily and conveniently.
Companies not prepared for wave of lawsuits
For the defendant companies, however, this development is a challenge to which they cannot respond appropriately in the structures to which they have been accustomed. This can have fatal consequences, as incorrect or late responses and missed deadlines can result in financial losses and damage to the company’s reputation. Legal departments and law firms find themselves overwhelmed, because they are often neither staffed nor technically prepared for this challenge.
Arivision of labor & standardization
In such a scenario, the traditional legal manufactory has no future. Structured legal project and process management by lawyers trained for this purpose is necessary here, with which standardized complaints can be responded to quickly and efficiently as standard. This project management is used to control the flow of work in the office or department and to coordinate tasks in a meaningful way.
A so-called shared delivery center (SDC) can also be an essential part of efficiently handling mass claims. There, colleagues with the appropriate technological training carry out standardized preliminary work, collect the necessary information for legal processing, control the flow of information and maintain the necessary databases. Lawyers in this model focus on purely legal issues. These services can also be outsourced to external providers – an important aspect because so far only a few law firms and even fewer companies have set up such a department themselves.
Rapid relearning necessary
Legal departments and lawyers in companies should quickly rethink and reorganize their processes. To do this, it is necessary to create an internal awareness of the problem, train employees and set up appropriate structures, databases and processes. Only well armed can the challenges posed by mass litigation be mastered.
Managing Partner
Head of Global Compliance Practice
KPMG Law EMA Leader
Tersteegenstraße 19-23
40474 Düsseldorf
tel: +49 211 4155597123
kvonbusekist@kpmg-law.com
Partner
Solution Line Head Legal Corporate Services
Head of IT & Innovation
Heidestraße 58
10557 Berlin
tel: +49 341 22572529
pglock@kpmg-law.com
© 2024 KPMG Law Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbH, associated with KPMG AG Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft, a public limited company under German law and a member of the global KPMG organisation of independent member firms affiliated with KPMG International Limited, a Private English Company Limited by Guarantee. All rights reserved. For more details on the structure of KPMG’s global organisation, please visit https://home.kpmg/governance.
KPMG International does not provide services to clients. No member firm is authorised to bind or contract KPMG International or any other member firm to any third party, just as KPMG International is not authorised to bind or contract any other member firm.