Uses of legal extranet technology in the risk management and insurance fields

Recently, we have noted a uptick in the number of uses of web-based collaboration technologies to assist in the tracking and management of matters related to the insurance industry. These uses include using these technologies to track the status of a legal matter, to track documents related to the cases, to maintain case calendars, and to help oversee other data related to the litigations or claims. The various document sets tracked in systems like this range from small document sets (perhaps only the initial claim and pleadings and other work product associated with a matter) to very large (complete sets of documents relating to all aspects of claims related to natural disasters emcompassing the claims of hundreds of major clients). It will be interesting to see if this trend continues and if the insurance area continues to be one which is utilizing web-based collaboration systems.