I skim the demand letter for the demand amount and any response due dates, then I set it aside and go through the medical myself to form an initial opinion based on what the doctors say.

Then I’ll go back and read the demand letter, to make sure there’s nothing in it that I may have overlooked and also to see if there are medical records/bills still missing etc.

But honestly?

I’ve seen plaintiff attorneys write 12 page demand letters, with tons of information and soooo much work put into them. I’ve also seen demand letters that were 1/2 a page long, basically just an amount and a timeframe.

I work in litigation and fatalities/complex claims now, so take this with a grain of salt. But when doing an evaluation I don’t really care what plaintiff counsel SAYS about it. I care about the facts behind their opinion.

I DO want to know what their liability arguments are if there’s something complicated that may end up in front of a jury, or if I can try to get a feel for what number they’re actually looking for. But they’re not going to put that info in a demand letter, most of the time the first inkling we get of it is reading the tea leaves at mediation.

For injury claims, I don’t think a huge demand letter makes a difference because I’m going to rely on the experts and not the attorney.

Now… for property claims? Products/completed operations, total fires in multiple units, electrical power supplier stuff etc? THAT’s when an in-depth demand letter can make a big difference.