Most plaintiff personal injury attorneys who are handling a client’s case switch at settlement from being the client’s advocates into lien resolution experts. After working up the case and getting a favorable settlement, personal injury attorneys would then often deal directly with healthcare providers, Medicaid, Medicare, and other entities that have liens on the case. 

Unless you, as a personal injury attorney, love negotiating liens, it’s important to know that you don’t necessarily have to do the lien negotiations yourself. You can outsource lien resolution to professionals and charge it as a case cost to the client.

Why Outsourcing Lien Resolution Is a Good Idea

There are several reasons as to why outsourcing lien resolution to a third party could be beneficial for your law firm. Outsourcing can allow you to:

• Manage your time better: Outsourcing can help attorneys dedicate more resources to other aspects of their practice, while leaving the complicated lien resolution process at the hands of experts.
• Get the services of experts: Outsourcing can also ensure that lien resolution is handled by people that have a breadth of knowledge and experience with these specialized tasks.
• Ensure compliance: Lien resolution experts typically keep abreast of the latest policy changes involving liens, which help ensure compliance with applicable laws and regulations. This, in turn, helps preserve a client’s future eligibility for benefits.

Is It Really Ethical to Outsource Lien Resolution?

There are ethics opinions in various states on this very topic that allow law firms to outsource lien resolution to third parties. For example, Utah has an ethics opinion from 2014 that enables plaintiff attorneys to outsource lien resolution to an expert and charge the fees that an expert might charge to the client as a case cost. 

So, if you don’t enjoy resolving liens for your clients, why not outsource those to a professional? That way, you don’t have to deal with lien resolution issues with Medicaid, Medicare, and the health care providers unless you want to. It’s ethical — and much cheaper for you and your staff to outsource it if you can. 

If you have any questions about a lien-related topic, give us a call or send us an email at [email protected]. Your message is sent directly to our team and our lien resolution partner. We can help you work through any lien issues in your cases.