How and why should Insurers quickly integrate Mediation into their Legal Protection offer? 

With the advent of the Justice Act 2019-2021, mediation has taken on a higher profile and goes from from the status of "alternative dispute resolution Disputes " (Mard) to a "full-fledged" means of dispute resolution, open to the parties, by guaranteeing the free disposal of their rights.

Today, "getting your case handled" through the courts is an obsolete expression by entrusting a judge to say the law after having heard the parties' counsel even though rapid and economical secure alternatives exist!

Mediation has always existed, but this concept has been slow to be generalized! It is a "new justice and the traditional actors (lawyers, judges, etc.) are seeing their role see their role evolve and transform.

MARD is "a modern conceptionised of justice, a justice that accompanies, observes, promotes negotiation, takes into account the execution, by taking into account future relations between the parties, and on top of that preserves the social fabric.

The litigant has too often the impression (corroborated by the studies of the Ministry of Justice!) that he has not been sufficiently heard by the judges, that justice is slow and costly... The MARD answer perfectly to the objections and criticisms of the litigants

In October 2003, this does not make us younger, took place in DRESDE (2) (Germany) the Congress of the Riad, which highlighted the interest the interest of the legal protection insurers in interest in mediation.

In France, insurers tried to develop a collaboration with CMAP

Not systematically meeting the same expectations, ADRs such as Mediation stand outnt from the traditional approach of legal protection insurers.

Integrating Mediation will revolutionize and bring about profound changes in the management and policy of claims handling by insurers. And here is what Insurers must quickly adapt to:

The Mediation brings a new customer satisfaction.

Satisfaction is at the heart of the business of an insurer offering a legal protection service.

In the entire value chain of informations legalues by phone or chat, the management of the dispute by in-house lawyers in-house to the transmission of the file to an external lawyer in case of necessity of a civil necessity of a civil lawsuit the objective is to contributer to the implementation of implementation of processes to quickly and economically settle a dispute, a disagreement or a conflict while preserving the sacrosanct "Customer Satisfaction.

However, an "all legal" response that insurers offer in their Legal Protection contracts no longer seems totally efficient because it forgets an important part of what constitutes the dispute, i.e. the causes of the latter!

Not treating the case reinforces or at least does not annihilate thehe feeling of dissatisfaction of the litigantclient of the insurer.

Only Mediation brings a strong consideration to this element by allowing a clear and dispassionate and dispassionate expression between the parties.

Mediation brings a different prism and vision of the conflict:

The problem of the Legal Protection client's dispute is seen differently in the framework of Mediation!

The Company, once it is seized of the conflict, must be able to adapt and understand how the Mediation acts. However, it does not forget the verification of of coverage but its approach and that of its lawyers must itself be guided by training in mediation to the techniques of mediation, in reverseant lprevious operating modes.

Most of the disputes (neighborhood disturbances, labor law, lease or commercial contracts), show that the parties remain and camp on legal positions to justify their to justify theirs requests or to respond tothe arguments of the opposing party.

The problem is often elsewhere and remains once again the origin and causes of the conflict!

Lommediation is a confidential, quick and efficient way to for repair the causes of his dispute, Mediation aims to restore confidence in the capacities that the customer holds to define his interests and and defend them in the presence of a neutral third party. (The Mediator).

Since consent to Mediation is free, the opposing party must be able to quickly gain confidence and have the genuine impression that his or her position will be respected before any intervention by a third party.

Justicity is a platform that brings together party A and party B with a trusted third party called the Mediator.

All the Mediators of the Platform are independent, have a great experience in Mediation as they are trained by the most important institutions and organizations in France and finally they all benefit from an accreditation.

The agents of Justicity agents are also present to accompany the parties and the Mediators in the correct implementation of the tools allowing to carry out the Mediation in the best conditions.

Mediation: a state of mind within the Legal Protection Services

Mediation must be anchored and widespread in the state of mind of the insurer's legal protection department. Without this strong appetence to ADR, the insurer's intervention will not allow to establish the necessary trust that this process creates. Mediation must be taken for granted and the jurists of the Legal Protection Unit must abandon their old reflexes and change their habits. This is the price that the insurer will have to pay to regain or improve customer satisfaction by conveying a positive and progressive image of the solutions it provides to its customers.

" Enter in mediation is to want to open up to the other, it is to be to be able to to determine one's own interests and to be ready to defend them, in a word, to assume responsibility, simply by looking at the other person not as an enemy, but as an ally.(1)

How to JUSTICITY can help insurers move from from an all-legal settlement to an assisted settlement?

Classically, the organizations of the "Legal Protection" services se structured around legal services (advice and amicable management) and financial services (lawyers' fees, expert reports, court costs) that they provide and pay for on behalf of their clients according to a specific scale.

For an employee, being sensitive to to the mediation process and to be the prescriber of it with the insured is difficult, if not impossible, because it is a departure from the traditional rules for handling cases.

A solution would be, as a first step, to introduce, once the time for legal advice has passed, to direct the insured towards the solution of Mediation before any legal action by exposing the advantages and by assuring him/her of an amount of coverage within the framework of his/her contract in the same way as the lawyers' or experts' fees that are already included in it!

The choice for the insurer is simple: either it infuses this dose and possibility of Mediation into the appeal process and the implementation of legal protection, or it leaves the choice to its lawyers to direct the cases to an autonomous structure specifically dedicated to mediation for which Justicity can make available its specifically dedicated platform for putting people in contact.

Are insurers finally ready to offer Mediation to their Clients?

Without a strong, full and complete commitment from the General Management of insurance companies, the introduction of Mediation will be impossible.

This is an eminently political decisionwhich must be imposed internally with the Directorates and the "P.J." Managers, but also with their teams in place! Indeed, it will be necessary to be convincing to those who, through fear of change, would not want to take or support this direction. It is necessary to review the training, the habits and the "all judicial" reflexes to which they have been accustomed throughout their professional experience.

The attempts that have been made in the past, within certain departments, can testify to this, the resistance has been strong and for some has not allowed the perpetuation of these alternative methods.and for some of them did not allow the perpetuation of these alternative methods.

The latest legislation, the current situation following the arrival of COVID 19, the growing demand of policyholders for rapid, simplified and accessible justice are all elements that plead for a change, if not a radical change, in the way conflicts and disputes are handled and this is a strong opportunity for insurers to propose alternative solutions that also allow them to communicate on their ability to listen to the world and to react with the expectations of policyholders

The platform Justicity provides privacy and trust

An insurer that decides to set up a structure or department specifically dedicated to mediation must continue to clearly separate the classic legal service from that which provides alternative methods. The objective of resolving a conflict is certainly the same, but the difference lies in the means to be used.

Indeed a failure of the Mediation (and the report can go very quickly!) the judicial solution can take over easily. As far as possible, the confidential elements of the file must be taken over freely, easily and without constraint. The rest of the file must therefore be able to be taken over by the insurer with complete peace of mind. The use of a tool and a platform such as the one developed by JustiCity allows the insurer to direct his insured client towards a secure solution for managing his case through mediation, while ensuring cost control. Mediators are trusted third parties who are often trained and accredited lawyers. The insurer who has redirected the case to the platform can take over the case to ensure a classic judicial treatment in case of failure!

An autonomous and evolving organization

Cach employee of as a cell of mediation with the help of this platform will be able to work independently of other lawyers.

The goal of such an organization is to promote a new form of support for the insured by providing a response no longer based on the sensitivity to the Mediation of lawyers whose volume would be proportional but towards a more systematic and general response and more general response allowing a mass treatment of of disputes that can be directed towards Mediation solutions.

A new logic and a different rhythm from the traditional management of Legal Protection cases is being established. The platform Justicity platform allows insurers to obtain a Mediation agreement very quickly and delegates the preparation of the to party A in conjunction with the Mediator. The insurer thus becomes a facilitator, taking less time at the origin of the conflict to bring a solution The insurer thus becomes a facilitator, taking less time at the origin of the conflict to bring a solution to the insured while ensuring a secure service putting him in touch with an independent, accredited and experienced third party in the exercise of Mediation. The insurer also directs the client to a solution that will be less financially involved and a source of both financial and time savings. The freedom of the parties is also preserved throughout the process.

Thes employees of legal protection services to the test!

If the principle of a separate organization of the Legal Protection service is agreed internally, this service must not be in perpetual confrontation! It must be acknowledged that not all attempts at mediation will necessarily succeed and that the place of the lawyer who previously managed disputes in the "classic" way is not in danger! There is just a need for a rebalancing in the management of cases to give Mediation a chance to impose itself in the corporate culture and in the choice of conflict resolution methods.

This balance must be achieved through the diversity of the lawyers' backgrounds and training, and the alchemy will consist of enabling the monitoring of a Legal Protection file and the transmission between the various parties involved through a well-designed information system and workflow.

The need to select disputes remains:

All disputes are not all the same, it is normal and even necessary in the workflow to evaluate the best mode of administration (Mediationor judicial management) allowing to answer to the customer satisfaction. This type of organization already exists within insurance companies, but the advent of Mediation should allow for even more in-depth methods and systems to guide the insured.

This internal competence must be able to integrate the MARDs in its its thinking.

Insurance companies face the MARD challenge:

An insurance company that does not put forward or implement internal and external solutions to offer and integrate ADR and more particularly Mediation in its Legal Protection offer will lose the battle of customer satisfaction and will not be able to control the costs of civil litigation! With the closure of courts due to the confinement, the texts of law that promote the use of the use of ADR to relieve the congestion of the the civil justice, the Mediation is finally imposing itself, day after day, to the litigants and by extension to the insurers' Legal Protection services.

Finally, the arrival of a platform, such as JustiCity, which is totally digitalized and secure and puts mediators in contact with and litigants should make insurers realize that the world is changing and evolving even faster today. They have the choice to create their own platform but also to rely on the expertise of this French start up which has been able to propose a clear, simple, fast and disruptive offer in terms of the cost of handling a dispute through mediation. The platform is also available as a "white label" for the most daring companies but also for those who are the closest and most sensitive to this spirit of solidarity, appeasement and benevolence to which our society aspires in a troubled moment of our economy which will bring its share of conflicts, disputes and litigation in our social and societal relations.

Frédéric DUPUY

Head of JUSTICITY and LEGALCITY SAS Partnerships

 

1. 1. In " Art et techniques de la médiation ", by MartineBourryd'Antin, Gérard Pluyette and Stephen Bensimon, Litec.
2. 2. Dresden Seminar of the International Association of Legal Expenses Insurance (Riad), proceedings published by the associationin"L'assurance de protection juridique, marché, garanties, perspectives", Bernard Cerveau, Éditions de L'Argus de l'assurance.