Every workers’ compensation defense attorney worth their salt is well familiar with the standard tactics for pushing claims toward resolution and mitigating exposure. There are a finite number of tools at the carrier’s disposal:

• denying claims and raising defenses;
• conducting a proper investigation (site inspections, security camera video, witness statements, background checks, employee personnel files, social media usage reports, ISO claim searches, police reports and FOIL requests, etc.) and surveillance of the injured worker;
• obtaining independent medical examinations (“IME”) and functional capacity evaluations (“FCE”) for issues such as need for treatment and medical necessity, temporary disability, work capacity and restrictions, permanent disability, etc.;
• raising fraud;
• litigating claims (injured worker and witness testimony, depositions of doctors, appeals and summations, discovery and disclosure including subpoenas and interrogatories, etc.); and
• pushing prompt settlement to cut off ongoing exposure.

However, there is one area of insurance defense that a startling number of trial attorneys demonstrate a lack of familiarity with: risk transfer.