Resource Library / SOP 08 · New Injury Case File Setup
Case setup · Full guide
New Injury Case File Setup
Contingency practice concentrates enormous consequence into the opening weeks of a file. Notices come due, evidence is perishable, liens attach, and the client is often still receiving treatment. This is the most detailed guide in the library because that period rewards structure more than any other.
Process owner
Case manager
Reviewed by
Handling attorney
Applies to
Every new injury matter
Review cycle
Every 12 months
Section one
Why the first two weeks decide the file
In most practice areas, a mistake in the opening weeks is recoverable. In injury work it often is not. Evidence disappears on its own schedule: vehicles are repaired or scrapped, surveillance footage is overwritten in days, a scene is cleaned, witnesses move and forget. Notice requirements against certain defendants run on short statutory clocks entirely unrelated to the limitations period. Liens attach quietly and surface at settlement, when they are far more expensive to deal with.
At the same time the client is at their least capable. They are in treatment, possibly out of work, dealing with insurers who are calling them directly, and understanding almost nothing about what the next eighteen months will look like. What the firm does in the first fortnight determines both the value of the claim and whether the client spends the following year anxious.
This is also the part of contingency practice most amenable to systems. Almost everything in the opening weeks is a known, repeatable task that a case manager can own completely, with the attorney appearing for the decisions that need judgment.
Every timeline below is an example. Notice periods, lien statutes, limitations periods, and insurance requirements differ substantially between jurisdictions and by defendant type. Replace them with your own before use.
The one thing to take from this guide
Calendar the limitations date and every notice deadline on the day the file opens, before anything else. Everything else in this procedure can slip by a week without permanent harm. Those dates cannot.
Section two
Purpose and scope
Purpose
Open every injury matter to a consistent standard within a fixed window, with all deadlines calendared immediately, perishable evidence preserved, coverage identified, liens tracked from the outset, and the client oriented to the process ahead.
In scope
The first fourteen days: file opening and naming, deadline capture, notice requirements, representation letters, records and report requests, coverage investigation, evidence preservation, the client intake package, and the expectations conversation.
Out of scope
Intake and the decision to accept the matter, covered by lead management. Case valuation, negotiation, and litigation. Settlement disbursement and lien resolution at conclusion, covered by case closing.
Section three
Day one: the non-negotiables
Four things happen on the day the engagement is signed. Nothing else in the procedure matters as much as these.
01
Case manager
Open the matter with the firm's naming and numbering convention
A consistent matter name and number, applied identically to the file, the accounting record, the calendar entries, and every document. Inconsistent naming at opening produces a file that cannot be searched for the next two years.
02
Case manager + attorney
Calendar the limitations date
Calculated under the applicable law for this claim and this defendant, entered in the firm's calendar with multiple reminders at long intervals — commonly one year, six months, ninety days, and thirty days out. Where the calculation is not obvious, the attorney sets it the same day. This date is never left to be worked out later.
03
Attorney
Identify and calendar every notice requirement
Claims against public entities, transit authorities, school districts, and certain other defendants commonly carry notice periods far shorter than the limitations period, sometimes measured in weeks. Determine on day one whether any apply, and calendar them with the same discipline. Missing one of these is among the most common ways an otherwise good claim is lost.
04
Case manager
Diary the file review schedule
A recurring review at a stated interval for the life of the matter, so the file is looked at deliberately rather than only when something arrives. Set the client's update interval at the same time.
Section four
Week one: notice, records, and evidence
Eight tasks, all owned by the case manager, all sent within the first five business days.
01
Case manager
Representation letters to all carriers
Written notice of representation to the client's own insurer and every identified adverse carrier, directing that all communication come through the firm. Sent promptly, because insurers frequently contact unrepresented claimants directly and early, and that contact is rarely to the claimant's benefit.
02
Case manager
Request the police or incident report
Ordered from the reporting agency on the standard form, with the request tracked and followed up if it does not arrive. The report drives party identification, insurer identification, and often the initial view of liability.
03
Case manager
Issue evidence preservation requests
Written preservation demands to anyone holding perishable evidence: property owners with surveillance footage, businesses with camera systems, employers holding vehicle telematics, repair facilities holding a vehicle. Footage is commonly overwritten within days to weeks. This is the most time-sensitive task in the week and the one most often done too late.
04
Case manager
Photograph and document the client's condition and the scene
Visible injuries photographed on a schedule while they are still visible, the vehicle or scene documented, and any physical evidence in the client's possession catalogued and stored. What is not captured in the first weeks generally cannot be recreated.
05
Case manager
Send the client intake package
Records and billing authorizations, HIPAA-compliant releases where applicable, wage loss authorization, the treatment log described below, and a plain-language guide to what happens next. Explain each form rather than sending a stack.
06
Case manager
Begin the medical records and billing requests
Requests to every provider identified, for both records and itemized billing, logged with the date sent and a follow-up date. Records requests are slow and require chasing; the log is what makes chasing possible.
07
Case manager
Open the treatment log with the client
Ask the client to record every appointment, provider, treatment, missed work day, and out-of-pocket expense as it happens. A client keeping a contemporaneous log produces vastly better documentation than one reconstructing eight months later, and it gives them something active to do.
08
Case manager
Identify wage loss and employment documentation
Where lost income is claimed, request employment verification and wage documentation early. Employers respond slowly and the request is easy to defer until it is urgent.
Section five
Coverage investigation
Identify every applicable policy in the first two weeks, not at the point of demand. Available coverage frequently determines the realistic ceiling on the claim, and the client deserves to know it early.
The adverse party's liability coverage
Carrier, policy limits, and claim number, confirmed in writing where the carrier will provide it. Also identify any excess or umbrella coverage.
The client's own coverage
Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, medical payments coverage, and any personal injury protection depending on jurisdiction. Clients routinely do not know what they have, and the answer often matters more than they expect.
Health insurance and payors
Which plan is paying for treatment, whether it is an ERISA plan, and whether any government payor is involved. This determines the lien landscape and is best known at week two rather than at settlement.
Additional responsible parties
Employers under vicarious liability, vehicle owners, property owners, contractors, and product manufacturers. Each may bring separate coverage and separate notice requirements.
Tell the client what you find
Where available coverage is limited, the client should know early. A client who learns at month fourteen that the policy limit was modest has been poorly served, however diligent the work was.
Section six
Liens: tracked from week one
A lien discovered at settlement is a problem. A lien tracked from week one is paperwork.
Every payment made for the client's treatment is a potential claim against the recovery. Health insurers, medical payments coverage, government payors, hospitals with statutory lien rights, and providers treating on a letter of protection all belong on the list. So do any obligations arising from public benefits the client receives.
Open a lien register on the file in the first two weeks and record each potential claimant as it becomes known: who, what they have paid to date, the basis of the claim, the contact and reference number, and the date the amount was last verified. Update it as records and billing arrive.
The register does two things. It prevents the settlement-stage discovery that delays disbursement for months, and it makes the client's realistic net recovery calculable during the case rather than only at the end. A client who understands the lien position understands their own settlement decision far better.
Where a government payor is involved, resolution procedures are procedural, slow, and unforgiving of late starts. Identify the payor early and begin the process on the payor's timeline, not the firm's.
This is jurisdictional and it is technical
Lien rights, reduction entitlements, priority, and resolution procedures vary substantially by jurisdiction and payor type. Get the framework for your own jurisdiction from your own authority, and consider having a mentor walk you through your first few resolutions.
Section seven
The expectations conversation
One conversation in the first two weeks, covering eight things. It prevents most of the anxiety and most of the inbound calls for the next year.
How long this takes
Realistic ranges for a matter like theirs, including that most of it is waiting
That quiet periods are normal
Records take months; treatment must conclude before value is known
Who their contact is
One name, one number, and when to expect updates
Not to speak to adverse insurers
All contact through the firm, and what to do if they are called anyway
To keep treating and follow advice
Gaps in treatment affect both recovery and the claim
Social media caution
Explained plainly, without alarm, and once rather than repeatedly
How fees and costs work
The contingency percentage, what costs are advanced, and how net recovery is calculated
That liens will reduce the recovery
Introduced now, in general terms, so the concept is not new at settlement
Section eight
Where firms get this wrong
Six failures. The first two are the ones that lose claims outright.
Notice deadlines missed
A public entity claim with a short notice period, treated as though the limitations period governed. This ends otherwise strong claims and it happens every year.
Preservation requests sent late
Footage overwritten, vehicle repaired, scene altered. Two weeks is often too late for camera systems.
Liens surfaced at settlement
Disbursement delayed for months, the client's expected net revised downward at the worst possible moment, and the firm looking unprepared.
The client's own coverage never checked
Underinsured motorist coverage that would have mattered, discovered after the adverse policy was exhausted.
Records requested without a log
No record of what was requested from whom or when, so nothing gets chased and the file stalls for months.
No expectations conversation
The client calls every fortnight for a year because nobody told them that a year of quiet is what normal looks like.
Section nine
Adapting it to your firm
Seven decisions, and the first three are jurisdiction-specific and mandatory.
Establish your notice requirement map. By defendant type, with the period for each, for your jurisdiction. Keep it on one page where intake and case management can both see it.
Confirm your limitations rules. Including tolling, minority, discovery-rule variations, and any claim-specific periods that differ from the general rule.
Learn your lien landscape. Which payors have statutory rights in your jurisdiction, what reductions are available, and the resolution procedure for each.
Set your fourteen-day checklist. Take the tasks above, assign each a day number, and make it a template that opens with every new matter.
Write your intake package. With plain-language explanations of each form, so a client in pain is not deciphering legal forms alone.
Build your preservation letter templates. One per common holder type — business, employer, property owner, repair facility — ready to send on day two.
Decide your file review interval. How often an open injury matter is deliberately reviewed. Monthly is common; quarterly is where files go quiet.
Use the sequence in this guide and replace every timeline with your own. The order of operations transfers between jurisdictions; the deadlines never do.
Next
Work through this with someone who has done it
Every attorney and law student who qualifies is paired with a free mentor: a firm owner, an operations expert, a finance expert, or a marketing expert. Bring this guide to the first call.
This guide is educational material published free of charge by the Law Firm Innovation Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, EIN 42-2464496. It is not legal, ethical, tax, or accounting advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Professional conduct rules, trust accounting requirements, limitations periods, and procedural rules vary by jurisdiction; every reader is responsible for conforming their own practice to the authority that governs it. If you find an error or something incomplete for your jurisdiction, tell us and we will revise the page.