More cases per month
More capacity per pre-lit attorney
Replacement of pre-lit support staff hiring needs
Location: Boston, MA
Employees: 60+
Altman Nussbaum Shunnarah Trial Attorneys is a personal injury firm based in Boston, representing clients across Massachusetts and most of New England. Founding Partner Larry Nussbaum describes the firm as a hybrid practice: it runs a high-volume pre-litigation caseload alongside complex, high-value litigation.
That hybrid model only works if the pre-litigation side moves quickly. A litigated case can take years to resolve, so the firm depends on its pre-lit caseload turning over every six to eight months to keep cash flow healthy.
Before EvenUp, pre-lit cases often sat untouched for months. Manual intake and record-retrieval processes created unnecessary delays: medical providers could take months to return records, and staff didn’t always follow up to confirm receipt. While the pre-lit team focused on chasing records and confirming coverage, client communication was neglected.
Staffing issues compounded the problem. Finding and keeping what Nussbaum calls “A players,” employees who would reliably complete assigned tasks, was difficult. Work quality was inconsistent across the team, and the cost and time of training and managing staff pulled the firm’s leadership away from growing the business.
Altman Nussbaum Shunnarah initially evaluated demand-drafting solutions to relieve some of the burden on its pre-litigation team. That search led Nussbaum to discover EvenUp’s Pre-Lit as a Service offering (PLAAS™). After reviewing PLAAS™, he was won over by the quality of the service and the case managers and leadership behind it. What started as an evaluation of demand support became a full overhaul of the firm’s pre-litigation department.
Today, PLAAS™ primarily manages the firm’s motor vehicle cases involving non-commercial parties. Once a case is qualified, it’s assigned to an EvenUp case manager, who handles claim openings, liability and coverage verification, record retrieval, and even sending letters of representation.
EvenUp case managers are held to the same benchmarks on every file, which keeps Altman Nussbaum Shunnarah Trial Attorneys’ cases from stalling the way they used to. Within the first two months, the following typically happens:
EvenUp case managers work under the operating standards of Altman Nussbaum Shunnarah Trial Attorneys and communicate with clients from a firm email address. That structure gives the firm full visibility into every file, even though the day-to-day work is handled by PLAAS™.
The firm stays largely hands-off on cases assigned to PLAAS™. A supervising in-house attorney is assigned to every file, but their involvement is mostly limited to quick approvals rather than substantive review. That’s possible because communication continues throughout the case: issues are flagged as soon as they arise, and updates are sent to the firm every week without being requested. Nussbaum says the volume and speed of communication outpace even his best internal staff.
The amount of updates that we receive on a daily basis from the PLAAS™ team is something that I've never seen before.
Larry Nussbaum
While EvenUp requires PLAAS™ case managers to obtain attorney sign-off on major decisions to keep the firm in the loop, attorneys typically don’t actively get involved with a case until it is ready to settle.
Since PLAAS™ case managers need so little day-to-day oversight, supervising attorneys can take on more cases: Nussbaum caps a supervising attorney at 150 cases when overseeing in-house paralegals, but at 250 cases when overseeing EvenUp’s case managers.
Altman Nussbaum Shunnarah Trial Attorneys used to rely on paralegals to confirm clients were attending treatment, but busy paralegals didn’t always check in. A missed appointment often wasn’t discovered until weeks or months later, by which point the gap had already devalued the case. Maintaining consistent treatment schedules is a priority for the firm, as it is key to obtaining policy limit settlements.
Now, EvenUp case managers meet with pre-lit clients weekly and send the supervising attorney an update after every call. The team also uses EvenUp’s Proactive Personal Injury AI Platform™ to ensure clients consistently receive treatment. The Medical Management™ Treatment Timeline gives early visibility into upcoming and missed appointments, costs, and treatment notes. Missing Doc Alerts surface documentation gaps early enough to request records well before the demand goes out, ensuring the case stays on track.
Nussbaum said the cases managed by PLAAS™ showed stronger treatment follow-through due to frequent communication with clients and reliance on EvenUp’s Medical Management to catch problems early.
We've seen that in all of the files assigned to PLAAS™, the clients have really followed through with the treatment, which gives us a fighting chance to pop the policy.
Larry Nussbaum
Once the team proved it could move pre-lit cases efficiently, Altman Nussbaum Shunnarah Trial Attorneys started handing over older files that had been sitting for months. These cases were often close to demand-ready but missing a single record. One case sat untouched for six months. Within 48 hours of being reassigned to PLAAS™, Nussbaum was alerted that the demand was ready for his review.
We assigned a file that was sitting for six months to the PLAAS™ team. Within 48 hours, the demand goes out. Even I’m blown away.
Larry Nussbaum
Reducing time on desk is a top priority for Altman Nussbaum Shunnarah Trial Attorneys, but not at the expense of case value. EvenUp’s case managers use Express Demands™ to generate a high-quality first draft with comprehensive damages and detailed injury claims in under an hour, pulling from medical records, bills, police reports, and other case materials. The AI-assisted process surfaces details in the records that a manual review might miss. Nussbaum credits EvenUp’s demands, along with close treatment follow-up, with enabling the firm to pursue policy-limit settlements without sacrificing speed.
EvenUp now functions as an extension of Altman Nussbaum Shunnarah Trial Attorneys’ pre-litigation team. Cases are assigned to an EvenUp pod, with a supervising attorney handling approvals. That structure gives the firm more capacity without pulling its strongest people away from casework to train or manage new hires.
When a marketing campaign drove an influx of 50 new cases in a single month, the firm routed them straight to PLAAS™ without worrying about overloading its own staff.
EvenUp’s PLAAS™ allows my firm to scale. I can drop as many files as I want on your case managers.
Larry Nussbaum
Beyond removing the risk of sudden staffing shortages, the cost savings from PLAAS™ are significant compared to hiring in-house talent. With PLAAS™, the firm doesn’t have to pay payroll taxes or benefits, nor does it need to spend time hiring and training staff.
From a financial standpoint and a quality standpoint, PLAAS™ is a no-brainer to me.
Larry Nussbaum
With PLAAS™ handling pre-lit cases end-to-end, the firm’s attorneys are freed up to focus on complex, high-value litigation. Nussbaum believes this is now where attorneys offer the greatest value, since PLAAS™ can take on much of the day-to-day pre-lit work attorneys used to handle.
If I could do it over again, I would become a hell of a trial attorney. We can't replace the trial attorneys, but a pre-lit attorney — and I mean this respectfully, myself being one — we're not as valuable as we used to be. It's just the truth. I can have PLAAS™ do the same thing a pre-lit lawyer can.
Larry Nussbaum
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