Great west casualty case points The mishaps in this case are due to miscommunications, The way that Zucaro found out about these events shows that there is very poor communication in the company. Even though Great West Casualty Company is an independent subsidiary of Old Republic, the CEO should have heard about the issue before reading one of the nation’s biggest publications, The Wall Street Journal 1. Great West has just one employee for handling their whole communications department. with no monitoring from anybody else One employee handling all the claims is not the proper way a company should be organizing their department. . When the newspaper articles came out regarding the lawsuit, Great West’s employee refused to comment, saying only that Ms. Witherspoon was ” negligent. ” 3. The claims adjuster who stated the case was closed should have sought out more information if that is what the customer was demanding. If he had enough time to file a lawsuit, he have had enough time to provide more customer service. 4. Lang being Witherspoon’s only daughter has the right to know what happened to her mother. Lang should be able to call and ask questions and get valid answers without having to make a threat to reopen the case.
Lack of approval 5. Since the claims adjuster was allowed to file a lawsuit on behalf of the company, this shows a lack of internal controls which started the problem. 6. Great West should report to Old Republic on any claim that is filed concerning controversial matters. There should be a checks and balances system in which a claim cannot be filed until a supervisor or upper level management has reviewed the claim. 7. Also, the companies do not seem to be linked internally. 8. There was no manual/procedures in place 9.
Scott Rager, Great Western’s executive vice president, concedes that the company is wrong in bringing suit, but never drops the lawsuit. Fix it 1. the first and most proper course of action should be to issue an immediate public apology on behalf of both corporations Issue a public apology to Ms. Witherspoon’s estate. Ensure this apology is recognized by surrounding media outlets to maximize the amount of exposure. 2. there needs to be some sort of explanation from Zucaro. He needs to address this issue soon before the public 3. Additionally, the claims adjuster should be held accountable for his actions 4. sit down meeting with the daughter and the head of Great West Casualty Company and a representative (who has the authority to make things happen) of Old Republic International Corporation is called for 5. Ensure that the public relations teams contact media outlets to promote positive aspects and events happening within the companies. 6. They should also look into the phone conversation to try to identify what prompted the claims adjuster to file the suit 7. Immediately drop the lawsuit against Ms. Witherspoon’s estate 8.
Move to expand the communication department of both companies and hire an in house public relations team. 9. Internal controls should be reorganized and carefully monitored to avoid further confusion, mistakes, and bad press. 10. Implement procedures and policies for handling situation inquiries. Also, companywide training concerning public relations should be given 11. Implement a system of checks and balances so that there is top down approval to pursue any legal action. 12. Old Republic International could make the truck drivers drive Sixty(or 65) miles per hour instead of seventy.
This could be guaranteed if a governor is put on the trucks so they can’ t exceed this speed 13. Old Republic should immediately drop the charges and hire some PR firm to help them clean up their image in regards to this incident. 14. One remedy is to have a department that is solely dedicated to developing legal actions to be taken by the company. These legal actions should have to be approved either by upper management, or even the CEO 15. By correcting this injustice, the public may once again trust Old Republic and use the company for their insurance needs
