“The survey highlights the numerous considerations for businesses when deciding whether to pursue a claim. These can act as counterweights to each other and shift over time, depending on environmental factors. As expected, effectively running the business and maximising shareholder value are consistently the priority both during and post-pandemic. However, a post-pandemic shift of altruistic attitudes with counterparties and a desire to recover losses are likely to drive increased claim activity in the coming year”.
Simon Rattigan, Director, Claims & Disputes, Forensic & Integrity Services
Preparedness
Our survey shows that law firms are expecting a surge in claims and disputes over the next 12 months, and some survey respondents say it has already arrived. Given the expected increase and the potentially significant financial implications, it is critical that businesses take proactive steps to prepare and protect themselves. However, the majority of respondents (52%) felt that their clients were underprepared to pursue – or defend themselves against – the expected increase arising from the pandemic.
Our respondents told us that they would advise businesses to perform the following steps for anticipated claims:
The EY Claims & Disputes team can help businesses, and legal counsel, from mitigation of dispute risks in contacts to assisting with the recovery of financial losses by:
- Early assessment to quickly understand the scale of losses or damages suffered.
- Collecting and managing large volume of data, preparing calculations and analyses to measure the quantum of the claim.
- Scenario analysis of varying options and assumptions for settlement negotiations.
- Providing robust, well-articulated, unbiased, independent, and professional opinions and testimony.
- Leveraging global team and sector experts as needed.
Find out more here.
Related articles
Summary
The pandemic is expected to have a continued impact on the claims and disputes landscape. Whilst some felt that the greatest impact has already been felt, most expect an uptick in activity. The desire to recover losses and a shift away from altruistic attitudes appear to be the key drivers of the change, but businesses are also expected to prioritise operations to halt the pursuit of claims, so the interplay between these various considerations will determine the extent of the surge in activity.