February 22, 2013 - Oregon State Bar

2013 PLF BUDGET, AND 2013 PRIMARY ASSESSMENT PAGE 2
OCTOBER 6, 2012
Number of Covered Attorneys
III. 2012 PLF Budget
We have provided the number of covered attorneys by period for both the Primary and Excess
Programs. (The figures are found on pages 1 and 8 of the budget document.) These statistics
illustrate the growth in the number of lawyers covered by each program and facilitate period-toperiodcomparisons.
For the Primary Program, new attorneys paying reduced primary assessments and lawyers covered
for portions of the year have been combined into "full pay" units. We currently project 7,034 fullpay
attorneys for 2012. For most of the past ten yeazs, there has been annual growth of 1.5 percent
or higher. However, there has been slower growth during 2011 and 2012 to date. Accordingly, we
have assumed growth of 1 percent for the 2013 budget which translates to 7,104 full-pay attorneys.
Although the Excess Program covers firms, the budget lists the total number of attorneys covered
by the Excess Program. Participation in the 2011 Excess Program declined because of competition
from commercial insurance companies. We anticipated an additional decline of 2 percent for the
2012 budget. Contrary to those expectations, we now expect the number of 2012 participants to be
slightly higher than 2011. The PLF has plans for education programs later this year to promote the
need for excess insurance. Our current budget expectarions are for 2013 participation to increase by
3 percent. If you include the other providers of excess insurance, more than 50% of the practicing
lawyers in Oregon have excess insurance.
Full-time Employee Statistics (Staff Positions)
We have included "full-time equivalent" or FTE statistics to show PLF staffing levels from year to
year. FTE statistics are given for each departrnent on their operating expense schedule. The
following table shows positions by department:
Administration
Claims
Loss Prevention (includes OAAP)
Accounting
Excess
Total
2012 Proiections 2013 Budtet
8.00 FTE 8.00 FTE
18.00 FTE 2033 FTE
11.83 FTE 11.83 FTE
6.90 FTE 6.90 FTE
1.00 FTE 1.00 FTE
45.73 FTE 48.06 FTE
We continue to have some permanent positions staffed at less than full-time levels for both 2012
and 2013. Some staff members work from 33 to 36 hours per week. These part-time arrangements
fit the needs of both the employee and the PLF. Part-time and staff changes are the reason for the
fractional FTE's.