Defense of Claims

Insurance is one of those necessities in life. You purchase it hoping that you never have to utilize it. However, the statistics show a strong likelihood that every physician will encounter an allegation of negligent treatment one or more times during his/her professional career.

DDI excels above our competitors in the area of handling claims. We are prompt in responding to every incident report and careful in working with you in the selection of defense counsel. Our objective is to relieve the doctor, to the greatest extent possible, of the stress and worry that so often accompanies these situations. Our defense posture is an aggressive one – we want to defend every doctor every time, if the claims can be defended. There are, of course, situations in which negligence is clear and a settlement is indicated. However, even in these latter instances, we are not going to agree to an over-sized settlement amount. We discuss considerations like this with physicians along the way. As stated earlier, we are a physician’s “allies” in the fight that often charaterizes a medical malpractice claim.

The claim results to date for DDI are very favorable. The Company has a historical “closed with indemnity” (CWI) frequency that is extremely low, meaning that the overwhelming majority of claims brought against our insureds have been successfully defended. This track record is enviable and provides for lower rate levels over time.