Risk & Claims Lingo
The broader legal process that occurs once a lawsuit is filed after an accident.
HINT: Paul told us the total cost of this can range from $70,000-$100,000 per claim.
What is Litigation?
Why do risk managers care so much about the "preventability" of an accident?
Risk managers care about preventability because it dictates whether a driver needs coaching, retraining, or discipline.
This is the leading professional association for public-sector risk managers; runs certifications, an annual conference, and educational tracks on pooling, ERM, and risk control.
What is PRIMA (Public Risk Management Association)
Which two tracks run parallel with one another after all initial evidence is gathered from an accident?
Preventability Track (internal, about the driver)
Liability Track (external, who pays for it)
GPS and vehicle-sensor systems (speed, harsh braking, idling, location) used to monitor driving behavior and feed claims/coaching programs.
What is Telematics?
An accident occurred in a city vehicle. These are the terms which determine whether or not the employee could have avoided the accident.
What is Preventable or Non-Preventable?
Most public fleets use this organization's standard, which asks if the driver failed to do everything reasonably possible to avoid a crash.
What is National Safety Council (NSC)?
Most public fleets use this organization's standard, which asks if the driver failed to do everything reasonably possible to avoid a crash.
What is the National Safety Council (NSC)?
TRUE or FALSE?
A city vehicle is parked in a technically legal spot, but with poor visibility for others, and gets rear-ended. The other party can take 100% liability of this accident, however, the incident can still be considered "preventable" and can result in coaching / corrective action for the driver.
What is TRUE!
Because of this public-sector-specific transparency law, public fleets face privacy and data-governance risks with their telematics & dashcam data that private fleets do not.
What is a FOIA Request? (Freedom of Information ACT)
The process of prioritizing and routing claims by severity and complexity so serious losses get attention fast.
What is Claims Triage?
Statutory ceiling on what a claimant can recover from a government entity, commonly $100K–$1M depending on the state. About two-thirds of states impose some form of cap.
What is a "Damage Cap"?
This is a group of government entities that jointly self-insure to spread risk and cut costs—the dominant risk-financing model for local governments.
What is a Risk Pool?
*You'll hear this regularly when talking to HR Directors!
What is the difference between litigation and going to trial?
Litigation is the broader legal process that occurs when a claim is filed against a public entity, while a trial is one single possible endpoint of litigation.
An unusually large jury award, often $10M or more. These have risen roughly 300% over the last decade in vehicle liability cases, including against public entities.
Nuclear Verdict
Instead of just looking at insurance premiums, risk managers measure their program's full financial impact using this standard metric.
What is the Total Cost of Risk (TCOR)?
Due to this court rule regarding shared fault, a driver can be found "non-preventable" internally, yet the city can still end up paying a percentage of the claim.
What is Comparative Negligence, or "CompNeg" in Paul's words.
When a public entity self-insures, they often hire one of these outside firms to handle claims processing from intake all the way to settlement.
What is TPA (Third-Party Administrator)
Fleets that capture telematics, video, and witness statements within this crucial time window report resolving claims roughly 3x faster.
What is in the First Hour?
When an agency or its insurer pays a claim, they can use this often-underused lever to recover costs from the at-fault third party.
*This is an underused cost-recovery lever in many public programs.
What is Subrogation?
*Better video and telematics evidence helps agencies win subrogation claims and get their money back faster.
Ordinary vehicle negligence is waived in nearly every state, but the waiver comes with strict notice-of-claim deadlines, and missing that window can bar an otherwise valid claim entirely, regardless of fault.
What is this typical deadline?
What is 60-180 days?
If you see these three letters on a risk manager's page on a city directory, or LinkedIn profile, it means they hold a common professional designation focused on risk-financing strategy.
What is ARM (Associate in Risk Management)
Demonstrated drive safety & coaching programs utilizing telematics and dash cam data are now tied to premium reductions of this percentage range.
What is 15%-30%!!!!
It's not just having telematics or dash cams in place. It comes down to what they DO with the data - having an actual safety program built. Bring this into your discovery when asking about a competitor or how a system is being used!