Industry Snapshot: Negotiating Claims in the Age of AI-Enabled Plaintiff Advocacy

Conducted by Suite 200 Solutions | June 2025

As the plaintiff bar rapidly adopts AI to strengthen their negotiation tactics, defense teams are under pressure to catch up. A new Industry Snapshot from Suite 200 Solutions explores how claim organizations and litigation leaders are navigating this new environment — and where the defense must adapt to remain competitive.

Key Insights from the Snapshot

1. Staffing: Who Really Negotiates?

• On average, only 46% of offers are conveyed by claim professionals — the rest by defense counsel.
• 96% of organizations don’t formally track who presents the offer.
• Half of executives surveyed believe claim professionals should take a stronger lead in negotiations.

2. Skills: Training Gaps

• Only 8% of defense attorneys report any formal negotiation training.
• 70% of executives believe claim professionals actually receive more negotiation training than defense counsel.
• A full 80% say more training is “critically important” for claims professionals.

3. Anchoring: The Power of First Offers

• Defense makes the first offer in only 25–28% of cases.
• 92% of organizations don’t track this metric.
• Nearly eight in 10 executives want claim professionals to make first offers more often, recognizing the advantage of setting the anchor.

4. Persuasion & Advocacy: Written vs. Verbal

• 69% agree that plaintiff demands are more detailed and evidence-based than defense offers.
• 98% believe the defense would benefit from more persuasive, written, evidence-backed offers.
• 100% of participants supported sharing more information with offers, though some favored holding back select points strategically.

Why It Matters

While nuclear verdicts and litigation funding often dominate industry conversations, this Snapshot underscores a more immediate battleground: the negotiation table. Settlement outcomes — not trial verdicts — determine financial results in 98–99% of litigated cases.

How cases are anchored, framed, and argued has never been more important. And with AI tools like EvenUp helping plaintiff firms generate persuasive, evidence-rich demand packages, defense teams must rethink their approach.

The Bottom Line

The Snapshot makes one conclusion clear: the defense cannot rely on traditional, reactive negotiation practices while the plaintiff bar leverages AI to scale persuasive advocacy.

To level the playing field, carriers and claim leaders must:

• Reassert claim professionals as negotiation leaders.
• Invest in advanced negotiation training.
• Adopt AI-supported tools to prepare compelling, evidence-based offers.

Download the full Snapshot here

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