Surveillance Isn't Only for Law Enforcement, Government, and Military - Try Business

You hardly have to join the CIA to become tell spy. In fact, these things are going on in all aspects of our overall society where people are using human intelligence gathering to get a leg up on their competition, whether it be in foreign negotiation, military effort, law enforcement investigation, or even in the modern day corporation.

If you are in business you need to keep quite a bit of information very close to the best, meanwhile you want the information about your competitors to flow into your hand. Information as it has been said is much like water, it wants to be free, it wants to flow, and more often than not it has a life of its own. In fact, if you have a few moments I would like to discuss this with you.

Breach of Contract Insurance for Businesses in Texas Could Provide Leverage in Settlement Talks

In Texas, if proper presentment of a claim is made pursuant to Section 38.001 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code, a party that sues another for breach of an oral or written contract is entitled to recover, in addition to the amount of the underlying contract claim, its reasonable attorney's fees. This statute also extends the ability to recover attorney's fees to claims for services rendered, labor performed, and material furnished, among others.

In the past, a company sued for breach of contract was "on its own." In other words, the company was responsible for paying any settlement, judgment, and/or attorney's fees incurred in defending the action. The fact of the matter is that traditional commercial general liability policies do not cover insureds for claims for breach of contract. However, it appears that a new line of coverage is being offered by at least one insurance carrier that would offer insurance coverage "that pays for attorneys' fees if the covered party loses at trial or summary judgment." I understand that it was initially rolled out in California, and is now expected to be written in several other states, including Texas.

In commercial/contract disputes, attorney's fees can often far exceed the amount of the underlying amount in controversy, and it is not uncommon for an attorney representing a plaintiff in a commercial dispute to threaten to "run up" the attorney's fees in an effort to squeeze the defendant business into settling an otherwise tenuous lawsuit to avoid the uncertainty of potentially facing a considerably larger verdict following a trial on the merits.

The ability of a business to have insurance coverage for "loser pays" attorney's fees would offset the settlement negotiation leverage mentioned above because it would eliminate uncertainty. With this coverage, a business owner who is sued for breach of contract would be able to assess the company's risk based solely on the amount of the contract damages and not based on the uncertainty of what amount a jury might award for attorney's fees following a trial on the merits.

I have been unable to date to obtain an actual insurance policy containing this new line of coverage, but I suspect that the underwriting guidelines are strict with coverage being limited to established businesses that have been involved in a limited number of lawsuits involving contract claims. Moreover, I suspect that even with breach of contract coverage, substantial litigation will ensue regarding whether the insured knew or should have known of the potential that it would either need to sue for breach of contract or would be sued for breach of contract when the policy application was completed.

Transparency Helps Immigration Law Firms Improve Productivity

There was a time, long ago, when professionals such as lawyers and others in specialized services, tried to keep their clients in the dark about what they did for them and how they delivered value. Those times are now part of ancient history; what clients want now is a clear understanding of what their firm is doing, how they will deliver value and how it will translate into more productivity and better business management.

Today's immigration law firms no longer hide behind the curtains of the obscure practices of law; instead, they openly share with their clients the steps it takes to manage their immigration cases and, more importantly, collaborate with their clients to complete those steps. Through the use of technology, these immigration law firms are able to capture and share data with clients, as well as with domestic and foreign consultants, governmental agencies, end recipients of visas, and many other, relevant stakeholders in the immigration process.

While, in former times, a client might have to contact their attorney and request an update of their immigration case, today, that attorney can provide full transparency to their client's case, enabling the client to view and track all parts of his or her case through an online immigration case management system. The attorney is then able to focus on more valuable activities that better reflect his or her background and specialties.

How is this transparency delivered via technology? Immigration case management software, powered and accessible from any computer with web access, lets attorneys and immigration law firms set access rights to particular data sets and invite clients, partners, consultants and other stakeholders into that online space. These stakeholders are they able to view accessible data, share information, submit forms and other required data and manage and stay updated regarding multiple aspects of open cases or continual compliance requirements.

Through transparent models such as a client relationship management module, fully integrated with a case management toolset, immigration law firms and their clients can receive the benefits of always available information. They can connect with each other through multiple online portal systems, including foreign national portals, corporate human resources portals, email alert systems reminding stakeholders of upcoming requirements and deadlines and multiple other communications and data sharing tools. All of these forms of communication enable the immigration law firms to focus on more relevant tasks that deliver higher levels of value for their clients worldwide.

INSZoom is the immigration software company - the leader in the global mobility and immigration software industries. We provide comprehensive, open commerce platforms that electronically enable our clients to share valuable information online, process immigration petitions faster, stay compliant and effectively manage their global mobility workforce.