P.I. POWERTOOL "NEW FEATURE SURVEY" RESULTS!

The user survey was a great success. The number of responses was quite large, and about 1/2 of the respondents selected 3 or more of the choices. Many of you were thinking "out of the box" and submitted detailed suggestions for features that were not listed by using the newideas@hipersoft.com email channel.

As you can see from the line graph below, the clear winner was "Add Pop-Up Warnings for Statute of Limitations and Other Important Events". This feature will certainly be implemented in the next version of the PIP. However, before we begin the coding process, we are doing a "Pop-up Warnings" Feature Survey which asks for your input regarding time intervals for warnings, types of events for which you would like to be warned, and options for pop-up warning messages. Your participation is greatly appreciated, and the results will be used to design and implement this feature.

Second place went to "Create Documents for Mass Mailings to Clients, Insurance Companies, Medical Facilities, etc." We are planning on creating the ability to create letters, envelopes, and mailing labels for Clients, Insurance Companies, Medical Facilities, Courts, and Attorneys. If you have any other input on this feature, please send it to newideas@hipersoft.com.

A close third place was "The Ability to Create Custom Forms in Microsoft Word. This is the most complicated and time-consuming development project of all the feature requests in the survey. We know that many of you are looking forward to this feature, and we are working very hard on this project.

Thank you again for everyone who participated in the survey!

Question: Which new features would you like to see in the P.I. Powertool?
The Ability to Create Custom Forms in Microsoft Word	17.3%
A Screen to Send/Receive E-mails through the PIP	8.6%
The Addition of a Workers Comp Module including WCAB forms	4.9%
Dial Telephone Numbers and Fax Numbers from the PIP	6.2%
Add Lookup Database to Store and Retrieve Police Dept. Contact Info	14.8%
Add Pop-Up Warnings for Statute of Limitations and Other Important Events	24.7%
Manage Client Trust Accounting	4.9%
Create Documents for Mass Mailings to Clients, Insurance Companies, Medical Facilities, etc.	18.5%

DING! DONG! THE "FEE CAP INITIATIVE" IS DEAD!

I think that all of us were aware that the PhRMA (Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America) had proposed 3 initiatives for the California ballot in 2005, one of which was to place a cap on the percentage a trial lawyer could charge under a contingent fee agreement. The proposed fee cap initiative, if passed, would have limited contingency fees to a point where it would not have been possible to stay in business. Specifically, the initiative would have limited contingency fees to 20% of the amount recovered for a claimant. This restriction would have been particularly damaging since the "amount recovered" would have been calculated after subtracting the costs incurred in prosecuting the claim!

Two other initiatives were bundled with the fee cap initiative. One would prohibit public angencies from processing union dues from employees if the funds are used for political purposes. The other would establish a drug-discount plan for low-income people that would involve only voluntary participation by drug companies.

On March 24, 2005, members of the Consumer Attorneys of California (CAOC) and other trial lawyer organizations met with members of the PhRMA in San Francisco to discuss the matter. (See article entitled "Lawyers, Drug Companies Huddle") It seems from the articles that were published, that the trial lawyers had some leverage on the drug companies. Since the trial lawyers had the resources to raise the money to put up a good fight on the first initiative involving caps on contingent fees, the drug companies had an incentive to withdraw this initiative, which would leave the other special interests in the position of having to raise all of the money themselves to fight their own battles on the other two initiatives.

On April 4, 2005, the PhRMA agreed to withdraw the initiative that would limit contingency fees. (See article entitled "Drug Firms Pull Initiative to Cap Attorney Fees") Apparently, the drug companies thought they would have a much better chance to win their fight without the trial lawyers being in the ring. While this victory is sweet, the icing on the cake is certainly the fact that PhRMA has agreed not to pursue a fee cap initiative next year either. (See article entitled "Truce Called in Fee Cap Fight")

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