Thompsons embraces blind bids

WECANSETTLE: firm settles case in four minutes through pilot service

Top trades union firm Thompsons is extending its trial of on-line settlement service WeCanSettle to four more offices following a successful pilot.

Positive client feedback on the service, which provides claimant solicitors and insurers with the facility to enter blind bids for compensation settlements until a middle ground is reached, has resulted in the pilot scheme being doubled in size.

The trial has been running in the firm's London, Leeds, Nottingham and Birmingham offices since October 2001.

Rachel Sarfas, case management partner at Thompsons, said: 'Our prime objective was to speed up the process of obtaining compensation for clients.

An indication of the pilot's success is that we settled several cases on the same day we opened them in WeCanSettle, and the fastest concluded within just four minutes of our first offer.'

She added that if the extended pilot continued to give good results, the firm would 'look at it for the future as a more permanent feature'.

WeCanSettle's managing director is Anne Irving, a partner at Liverpool law firm Irvings, which set up the service in September 2000.

The service registered its 1000th user last month.

'It is very gratifying to see that the Thompsons pilot confirms the benefits which WeCanSettle offers to solicitors and insurers and we are excited that more offices are to use the system,' she said.

'We look forward to when they stop regarding it as a pilot and reach a formal agreement to extend it firm-wide and use it regularly.'

Ms Irving said that five other unnamed law firms have joined the pilot and are using the service for personal injury work, although 'it will be a couple of weeks before they can be revealed'.

She added: 'The service has seen an increasing take-up by high-tech, highly professional firms looking to speed up the settlement process to enhance client satisfaction.

And any individuals who come to us asking about it are directed to these member firms.'

Andrew Towler