008 5 Things You Should Ask Before Hiring a Car Accident Lawyer

0:00                 ANNOUNCER: Welcome to “Lawyers in the House,” with Montlick. Wish you had a lawyer in the family? Now you do! Here’s your host, Veronica Waters.

 

VERONICA: Welcome to “Lawyers in the House,” with Montlick on WSB. I am your host, Veronica Waters. And I thought that we should start off this week’s show

0:31                 with a little joke. How many lawyers does it take to change a light bulb?

 

0:37                 MARK: We don’t know. We didn’t count how many.

 

VERONICA: None, because they’d rather keep their clients in the dark. Ba dum, psh. This is the stuff of legend. When it comes to lawyer jokes, why are lawyers so maligned?

0:51                 Why are all of the lawyers’ jokes the ones that make them out to be the worst folks on Earth? I’ll tell you why. I think maybe it’s because in some part, lawyers are associated with some of life’s worst moments. Who thinks fondly of that trip to juvie? Or the painful divorce, or the bankruptcy filing? Or the time our neighbor sued us for something, or when we had to sue somebody else? It’s not really a warm and fuzzy time. But I also would venture to guess that sometimes the lawyers that we encounter are really not the best representations of that profession. And so today, we wanna give you the red flags that you’re gonna need to pick out the good lawyers and run far, far away and fast as you can from the bad ones. Attorney red flags is what we’re talking about today on “Lawyers in the House,” and with me today, two dapper and debonair gentlemen, respected attorneys from Montlick.  We’re gonna start off with Mark Molina, who is a Bronx native who comes to Georgia after many years in New York and many years practicing law in several different fields, right?

 

MARK: Correct.

 

VERONICA: I gotta say, I thought it was funny that Mark said how it freaked him out when he first came to the south as a Marine and thought that people…

 

2:12                 MARK: …were a little too nice.

 

VERONICA: Were a little too nice, the smiles kind of threw him off.

 

MARK: What are you smiling at me for?

 

VERONICA: What’s your problem? What do you want, right?

 

MARK: What’s so good about today? Why are you saying good morning to me? I don’t know you.

 

2:23                 VERONICA: What is so nice about this day, right? And then Phillip Hairston, who grew up with those southern gentlemen sensibilities because he’s an Atlanta native. Are you a Grady baby, Phillip?

 

PHILLIP: I am actually, yes.

 

VERONICA: Grady baby. And grew up in Stone Mountain.

 

PHILLIP: That’s correct.

 

VERONICA: Graduated Georgia Tech.

 

PHILLIP: That’s right.

 

VERONICA: Bachelor in…

 

2:40                 PHILLIP: Chemistry.

 

VERONICA: Chemistry, with honors.

 

PHILLIP: Thank you.

 

VERONICA: Which is amazing, and I wanna ask you about that. But two of Montlick’s most respected attorneys. One of them has been in the field for decades, another not as many years; but both of them already building great names for themselves. Thank you guys so much for being in the house.

 

PHILLIP: Thanks for having us.

 

MARK: Thank you.

 

VERONICA: Mark, I wanna start off with you, because I did mention that you have had so many years in law. More than 30 years.

 

MARK: More than 30.

 

VERONICA: Right. But you started out far, far away, sort of, from personal injury. So talk to me about your journey here to this place.

 

MARK: In terms of law, my journey began at Legal Aid in the Bronx. So my first law job was in the Bronx Legal Aid defending indigent criminal defendants. So that’s where I got my combat experience.

 

3:37                 VERONICA: Combat experience.

 

MARK: In the courts.

 

VERONICA: Yeah. What was that like? You know, and how did that season you for your later years in law?

 

MARK: Being in court every day empowers you and trains you how to deal with court, judges, adversaries on a level that you can’t get any other place. Courtroom is the place to learn how to hone your craft if you want to be a litigation lawyer, which is what I am.

 

VERONICA: Yeah, you’re a litigator.

 

MARK: Yes.

 

VERONICA: Do you think that being a Marine helped prepare you for this?

 

4:06                 MARK: It helped immensely. Boot camp – from boot camp in South Carolina to boot camp in law school, it was a pretty easy transition.

 

VERONICA: Pretty easy transition, you say? What’s harder, law school or boot camp?

 

4:18                 MARK: Law school.

 

VERONICA: Really?

 

MARK: Law school.

 

VERONICA: That’s fantastic. That sounds like a story you should tell off the air, I don’t know. Is that one week in here, one on the air waves?

 

MARK: Absolutely. Invite me back any time.

 

VERONICA:  All right, and Phillip Hairston, I have got to take a moment to find out how in the heck a man who graduated Georgia Tech with honors, with a BS in chemistry,

4:43                 wound up in the legal field? What?

 

4:48                 PHILLIP: Well, I kind of knew by the time I was a senior in college I probably wouldn’t do chemistry research forever. So I started to think about law school in my senior year and I thought it’d be a good use for my skills. I know I was a good writer. I like people in general. I thought that I would just go to law school and see how I liked it. And here I am nine years later still doing it and I love it.

 

VERONICA: Your first years, though, you weren’t at Montlick.

 

5:12                 PHILLIP: That’s correct. My first four, five years I was spending representing insurance companies in worker’s compensation cases. So I learned how insurance companies work, how they think, how they evaluate cases, how they beat cases, frankly; and I use that knowledge know to win cases for my clients.

 

5:30                 VERONICA: So it’s really- let me ask you this, ’cause I’ve heard from a couple of other lawyers that… not to put words in your mouth… does it feel better on this side?

 

PHILLIP: Absolutely. Every day I get to help people who truly need my help. Before I did plaintiff’s work, if I saved an insurance company $100,000, that was a drop in the ocean. They didn’t care. It was just a pat on the back and on to the next case. Now if I get someone $100,000, that changes their life. That gets their bills paid. That might pay their house off. It might make sure they have money to cover all their expenses they lost when they were in the hospital for three weeks after a car accident. It truly is life-changing. I love that feeling.  Every day someone gets to talk to me and have their life improved because of it. And that’s a great feeling.

 

VERONICA: Thank you so much, guys, for sharing a little bit of your personal stories. I feel all warm and fuzzy. We’re warm and fuzzy already. These are the kinds of guys

6:23                 that we want to talk about attorney red flags. And I think I wanna just start off with asking how quickly one of these so-called red flags is gonna raise its ugly head. Like, you know, is there one overarching theme that you hear most of the time?

 

PHILLIP: Well, probably in the very beginning of your case, as soon as you’re hurt. I’ve had a lot of people who’ve called me who have had prior lawyers, and I always ask them, “Well, how did you find your first lawyer?” And they’ll say, “Oh, well, some guy came up to me in the hospital,” or “I talked to someone who towed my tow truck and they said to call this lawyer.” And that’s probably the most common thing. It’s a tactic called running, and the way it works is a law firm might pay someone to advertise them to a potential client. So for example, if you’re in a car accident, your ambulance driver might say, “Hey, I know who you should call. Call X, Y, and Z lawyer.” Or someone might come into your hospital room as you’re in the hospital bed and they might say, “Hey, I got your police report. I heard you were injured. I know a guy you should talk to,” and give you a business card. That’s probably the biggest red flag I can think of,

7:36                 that starts as soon as you’re hurt.

 

VERONICA: Mark, I gotta say, though, it sounds very convenient. If I am in the ambulance or laid up in the hospital, maybe I know I need a lawyer, right? This was a pretty bad thing that happened to me. What’s wrong with somebody saying, “Hey, I got your police report,” or “Hey, you know, here’s my buddy’s card. Why don’t you give him a call? He can really help you out”?

 

7:59                 MARK: Not good. Not good at all. I think you said you might need a lawyer. If you’re hurt, you need a lawyer. You’re up against insurance companies that are very well-represented. I used to be an insurance company lawyer. Phillip just said he was in it. So imagine us on the other side and you’re just gonna take a card from someone who’s come into your room unsolicited or come into the room of your loved one unsolicited, with promises of grandeur. Not good. We call ’em runners and what you should do if you ever have that is you should run. And because you need a lawyer, that’s why our number’s 1-800-LAW-NEED. Because you need a lawyer. ‘Cause if you imagine that you’re up against Phillip and I as insurance company lawyers, you are up against some good talent and you’re gonna want equal talent. Luckily, now we’re on this side, and we put the fear in that side now.

 

8:48                 VERONICA: Tell me a little bit about how that experience of being on the other side sort of colors or advises who you are today.

 

8:59                 MARK: As Phillip started saying, you get into how you’re taught how they think, how they evaluate a case, how they consider what they’re gonna offer as a settlement, and what they want the case to settle for (which is always low, especially in the beginning) and you learn all the tactics they use. So having known and been trained in that field, and we have extensive training, we know that when you call us and you have us as lawyers, we’re not gonna fall for that.

 

VERONICA: So it sounds like the knowledge level is another, let’s say, green flag, right, for an attorney. Is there a way- is there a red flag that says, “you know, this guy doesn’t seem like he knows very much?” Is there a way that I would sense that?

 

PHILLIP: So the first thing I would look at is what does that lawyer practice? All we do is personal injury. Personal injury, wrongful death, catastrophic injuries- that’s all we do every single day. If the lawyer you talk to does personal injury and, say, immigration, that’s a problem. Every area of law can be highly specialized with a lot of twists and turns, a lot of complications, and someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing or doesn’t do it full time, they’re gonna mess up somewhere. And they mess up your case or, let’s say, they’re trying to learn how to do personal injury on top of criminal or on top of divorce law…. Well, they’re gonna use your case as a training ground, as boot camp for them.

 

MARK: Right.

 

10:24                PHILLIP: So they’ll be learning at, you know, the client’s expense, unfortunately. But like I said, all we do is personal injury. All any of us do is personal injury full time every day.

 

VERONICA: Do you feel like you have –  I shouldn’t say feel like –  do you know whether or not you’ve had clients who maybe had some of these bad experiences and came to you?

 

MARK: Oh, Phillip can speak more to it than we can. He had ’em all the time.

 

PHILLIP: Absolutely.

 

VERONICA: All the time?

 

10:48                MARK: All the time. Go ahead, Phillip.

 

PHILLIP: Yeah, I’ve had a lot of calls from people who want a second opinion, who wanna hire a new lawyer. So I’ll talk to them, and if they have a lawyer before me, I’ll always ask them, “Well, who is your lawyer?” And they’ll tell me. And I’ll look them up on Google. And I’ll see that they do immigration law primarily, or they do criminal law, or family law, on top of some personal injury. Or maybe they’re a corporate lawyer who knows someone who knows someone who knows this potential caller. And that’s always a red flag to me because I’m thinking what do they know about personal injury law? If they don’t know what they’re doing, their case cannot be maximized because they’re having someone work their case who doesn’t really know the ins and outs. They don’t know how to deal with insurance companies, how to speak to juries in a personal injury lawsuit. These are skills that you only learn when you’re doing this kind of work full time.

 

VERONICA: You’re only doing this kind of work full time. So you’ve got… you sort of know the nooks and the crannies, if you will.

 

PHILLIP: Yes, exactly.

 

MARK: That’s right.

 

VERONICA: Yeah. I think when we did the very first “Lawyers in the House” episode, Alyssa told us that the number one Bar complaint is “I never hear from my lawyer.”

 

MARK: Right, you don’t have that with us. We have a system in place. We call our clients on a regular basis. Phillip and I, we work together a lot. We have gone to our clients’ homes. We had a trial earlier this year together where he second co-chaired me, second chaired – whatever the term is, and-

 

VERONICA: Did you guys duke it out over who was first chair or second chair?

 

12:12                MARK: We prepared her, we went to her home, we got her ready, we got her feeling comfortable. And she knew that she could call Phillip or me on our cells, given that we were gonna be in trial. And I probably give out my cell more than most. I want them to know that they can reach me. We have teams in place that if we don’t get back to you,

12:36                someone will get back to you.

 

VERONICA: What level of importance is it, in your view at least, that you have a good relationship with your lawyer?

 

PHILLIP: It’s probably the most important part of the attorney-client relationship.

 

12:48                VERONICA: Okay.

 

PHILLIP: People are calling us at a scary part in their life. They may have a broken arm. They may have a lost loved one. And they need someone that they can reach out to, talk to, and have their questions answered. People want to feel secure.

 

13:00                VERONICA: So I don’t need to necessarily worry if my lawyer is not so verbal; or, you know, can I have a good relationship if it’s not, like, a chatty one?

 

PHILLIP: I think so. I think as long as you have your questions answered and you can reach your lawyer in a reasonable amount of time, I think that’s pretty good. A lot of my clients don’t want to talk on the phone. They want to be texted or emailed, I think that’s fair. So as long as your lawyer can reach out to you in the way you feel comfortable, I think that’s good.

 

VERONICA: All right, Phillip Hairston and Mark Molina here on “Lawyers in the House,” with me, your host, Veronica Waters. Still to come, why a lawyer cannot guarantee you an outcome. Stay with us.

 

 

13:42                VERONICA: Back with you right here on WSB with “Lawyers in the House” with Montlick. I’m here with my dudes Phillip Hairston and Mark Molina. We’re talking about attorney red flags. We’ve already learned a couple. Make sure that you check us out on demand if you missed the first segment of the show. I wanted to talk a little bit about what’s happening when I’m lawyer shopping, though. Because I’m sure, guys, that there are attorneys out there who are maybe quite eager to put a dollar amount when somebody calls up and says “What’s my case worth?” What’s wrong with that?

 

PHILLIP: Well, the problem with that is every case is very fact-dependent

14:20                and they’re all very complicated. In any case, in a personal injury case, one of the most important factors in the case’s value is the medical bills, the medical treatment, the medical records, how hurt you are, what kind of treatment you get, what kind of MRIs or X rays you have. Those things are all huge factors in what your case is worth and a lawyer worth their salt really wouldn’t know what your case is worth until they see those records. So if a lawyer tells you from the first call, “Oh, your case is worth X, Y, and Z amount of dollars,” they really can’t know that without seeing your medical records first, or at least seeing how injured you are.  So I will be very cautious if a lawyer told someone that from the very beginning. I always tell clients if they call in, you know, I wanna make sure I can give you the best representation I can, I’ll certainly maximize your case’s value, but truly until I see your medical records, I really cannot give you an accurate estimation

15:14                of your case’s value. I don’t think anyone really could.

 

VERONICA: Mark, what should I think about a lawyer who tells me, “Yeah, your case is worth a half million, three million, easy”?

 

MARK: If a lawyer is coming out of his mouth with a number and they don’t even know your case, they don’t know your injury, they haven’t seen any medical records, they don’t know anything about you, how you’re recovering, or even spoken to the doctor, seen medical records, how can they give a fair and reasonable evaluation, or a realistic evaluation of your case? They can’t. Now, a lawyer who knows what he’s doing – like I know – I’ll listen to your story. I’ll listen to the facts. I’ll look at the records. I’ll tell you from the beginning, “Let me look into your case, let me look at your medical records, let me look at all the stuff that’s happened, evaluate it, and we will have a conversation about a number at that time.” And at that time you’ll know that the number I’m giving you is far more reasonable and educated and realistic than any number I could have given you in the first 30 seconds.

 

16:08                VERONICA: Do I have some sort of obligation if I even just talk to a lawyer about what’s up at the beginning?

 

16:14                MARK: No. And at Montlick, you come talk to us, we give you a consultation… a lawyer consultation with lawyers. And there’s no obligation or cost as a result of that consultation.

 

16:26                VERONICA: But what about the guy who’s like, “I want you to sign with us right now”?

 

MARK: Red flag, red flag, red flag. Run.

 

VERONICA: Red flag, run? Do not pass checkered flag. go straight to get the heck up out of here. Okay. All right, this is “Lawyers in the House” with Mark Molina and Phillip Hairston on WSB. Coming up, we’re going to talk about why Phillip says you should hire him, and we’re going to look ahead to Montlick’s closing argument of the week. You’re not gonna wanna miss it because we’ve got five points for you,

16:57                so get out your pen and paper. I’m Veronica Waters. Be right back.

 

17:03                VERONICA: Back with us right here with “Lawyers on the House” on WSB. We are talking to the fabulous injury attorneys from Montlick, Mark Molina and Phillip Hairston. And we are giving you a little bit of information about attorney red flags. The ones that get thrown up that make you say let me get the heck up out of here, as Mark said a little while ago. Run, run as fast as you can- can’t catch me, I’m the gingerbread man.

17:29                If you missed the first red flags in our show, make sure you check us out on demand on WSB radio or lawyersinthehouse.com. You can hear all of the tips that Mark and Phillip had to share earlier. And don’t forget to check us out on social @MontlickLaw on every platform. I think it’s important to mention again how much is at stake when you hire an attorney. When you need to hire an attorney your life, at that moment, is probably turned upside down. So you’ve gotta make the right decision. Right?

 

18:05                MARK: Absolutely.

 

VERONICA: This is something that you’re going to probably research and, as Phillip likes to say, get a second opinion on, right? Just like you would with your doctor. I’ve got to ask you though, Phillip, about this point of pride that you have… A conversation that apparently seems to keep cropping up as you talk to potential clients when they’re looking for somebody.

 

PHILLIP: Of course.

 

VERONICA: Yeah.

 

PHILLIP: So a lot of clients will call us for an initial consultation, and we’ll talk about their case, and what it could be worth, and what my suggestions would be to handle their case. And a lot of my clients – they’re smart, they’re thorough, they do their research, and they’ve talked to other law firms before hiring me. And they’ll ask, “Why should we hire Montlick over, say, someone else?” And I always challenge them to think about attorney-client communication. I think that’s the most important part of the attorney-client relationship. If you can’t reach your lawyer, if you can’t communicate with them, or have your questions answered, your case will fall apart because you can’t have the relationship you need to be successful. So I always challenge potential callers and clients call other law firms and see how easy it is or how hard it is to get someone – an actual attorney – on the phone to discuss your case. If a client calls the firm Montlick, they will get an attorney on the phone very quickly and that will be the attorney that would handle their case.

 

VERONICA: And when you say very quickly you mean, like, answering the phone?

 

PHILLIP: Yes, exactly. At least within a few minutes of actual initial screening. But I will challenge prospective callers to call other law firms and see how easy it is to get someone who’s actually an attorney on the phone. Not a paralegal, not an assistant, not a receptionist, but the person who would actually be handling your case. And I’m guessing that most of them cannot get another firm with another attorney on the phone with them very quickly. And I’ve had clients who took this challenge up, and they’ve called me back within 30 minutes, got me on the phone, and said, “Phillip, you were right, I couldn’t get an attorney on the phone. I had a paralegal or a staff member, or they said they’d call me back, but I couldn’t get an attorney like you on the phone at all.” And I say, “Exactly, that’s what you want, though, when you hire an attorney. You want someone you can reach because you’re gonna have questions.” These cases might last two months, they might last two years, and in that time I guarantee you you’ll wanna talk to your lawyer at some point. So you’re gonna want someone who’s gonna return your calls and who you can reach for very quickly. You might have a question you need answered immediately. What happens if you can’t get a rental car quickly? What happens if the insurance company’s not returning your calls quickly? You’re gonna need to know what to do at that point and you want someone who can actually be reachable.

 

20:34                VERONICA: Now, you guys recently had a case together – Were you gonna say something, Mark?

 

MARK: I was, if it’s okay.

 

VERONICA: Jump right on in!

 

MARK: You know, one of the hallmarks of a good lawyer-client relationship is the client is entitled to your zeal and your opinion and your attention. They’re entitled to you to listen to them and listen to them clearly and give them your undivided attention and faith and fidelity when you are representing them. That is the hallmark, the basic fundamental principle in a client-attorney relationship. And we give that – I know I give it. You know, I will listen intently. Because of my New York background, occasionally interrupt. But after that (for the most part, high 90 percentage points) they leave knowing that Mark has their best interest at heart, he’s capable, he’s qualified, he knows what he’s doing. And the firm that he’s with, Montlick,

21:30                has all the resources that they need for the case to be successfully prosecuted, to get the highest settlement possible.

 

VERONICA: How should I feel, as a potential client, when I walk away from that conversation with this lawyer I may or may not hire?

 

MARK: That’s a great question. You should feel that, when you walk away,

21:50                number one, relaxed. You should feel, okay, he understands, he’s done this before (or she has done this before). They know what they’re doing, they have the resources. He knew what I needed to know. I mean, he knew how to answer all of my questions. He looked at me, he listened to me, he took all the time. (And I keep saying he, but there’s she’s, many she’s.) All the time that I needed, all of my questions were answered… And then I always let them know when you go out to the car, you’re gonna say, “Oh, I didn’t ask him this!” Call us back. We’ll answer that too. So you need to walk away knowing that the lawyer is gonna have your best interests, qualified, and capable to do your case. Right?

 

PHILLIP: Agreed.

 

VERONICA: When you guys tried a case together, Mark and Phillip, tell me about that client and how she came to you, and what that experience was like.

 

MARK: I’m gonna steal this one, because she came to me from another lawyer, and I loved her. I loved her. I knew that she had been through a lot, and the insurance company was doing her- in the vernacular of the neighborhood- wrong. And while it was a smaller case, I made her know and we let her know that it doesn’t matter. We will go to the very end on this case for you, and we did. She sent us a card, and the first words were “Thank you for seeing my case through to the end,” which I don’t know that a lot other firms would have done it, but we did it for her. And it took three days, right?

 

PHILLIP: It did, yes.

 

MARK: So in court – she had her day in court – and jurors decided; and she got to see that she had two capable lawyers fighting for her.

 

23:29                VERONICA: Let me… I need to know if she shared anything with you… I don’t want to violate attorney-client privilege, but what was the difference between you guys and the folks that she left? ‘Cause I think it’s also important to let folks now whether or not they can fire an attorney if they’re already entangled with somebody, you know? But I guess before we get there, what was her experience like that made her feel more at home with you?

 

MARK: That she knew the difference was she was led to believe there wasn’t a lot of value in her case, and that she should just take what they were offering

24:06                and not go forward. I told her, “You don’t have to do that.” You don’t have to do that. We can go to jury, and we can’t guarantee what insurance is going to give you; but I can guarantee you that when you get up after the jury trial (which she did), [you’ll] look at us, and say, “Wow, you guys really fought for me.”

 

VERONICA: And what you guys… after you fought, Phillip, and you recovered something for her, was it more than that initial offer was?

 

PHILLIP: It was significantly more than the initial insurance company’s offer. It was more than their offer was that day of trial.

 

24:34                VERONICA: Wow.

 

MARK: Right.

 

VERONICA:  Wow, makes all the difference. So if I am already entangled with an attorney, what are my options? I’m not up the creek without a paddle.

 

PHILLIP: Of course not. So every client’s entitled to the counsel of their choice. I mean, that’s just Georgia law. So at any point in the case, you can fire your lawyer for any reason. So there’s no reason to think that because you signed a contract already or your case is a year old or that it’s already in litigation, there’s no reason to think that you can’t get a second opinion. Or you can’t talk to another lawyer, or fire your lawyer if you think they’re not doing what they’re supposed to be doing. Or if you don’t feel comfortable with that attorney. So there’s always a way you can get another lawyer if you feel so entitled.

 

25:16                VERONICA: I really thought that contract meant, you know, that’s it, B.

 

MARK: Well, there’s parts of the contract, you know, depending on how long a case goes… if there are courts associated, if a suit’s been filed… I can only speak in generalities because every case is different, and getting fired is not something that’s happened to me a lot. So I don’t know a lot about it. So…

 

VERONICA: Toot that horn.

 

MARK: So, but as Phillip said, if you’re not happy you can go get someone else.

 

VERONICA: How do I know if my lawyer is shady?

 

25:45                PHILLIP: Well, the first thing I would look at is how easy it is to talk to them.

 

VERONICA: What do you mean?

 

25:51                PHILLIP: Well, if you can’t reach your lawyer, you can’t talk to them in the first place. So if you can’t get them on the phone, if you can’t get your emails returned, if you can’t get a call back, that’s a problem. Because you should have your questions answered. Like I said, cases can go on a long time. Some cases take years to resolve. And so you’re undoubtedly gonna have dozens of questions during that time. So if your lawyer can’t even return your call, they certainly can’t answer your questions. So that’s probably the first problem I would see in a potential attorney-client relationship.

 

VERONICA: Does my lawyer need to be giving me some sort of road map for the outline of my case?

 

PHILLIP: I think so. I think all my clients at least know what to expect in a case after an initial consultation. I’ll explain how I think they need to get medical treatment, why that’s the backbone of their case. I’ll explain how getting certain medical treatment

26:41                can increase the value of their case. I’ll explain how the insurance company might try to settle the case before a lawsuit’s filed. And if we can’t reach a favorable settlement, well, then the lawsuit’s filed. And we’ll talk about what that process entails too. This is part of all of my initial consultations because the client should know what to expect going forward. You don’t want to hang up the phone with a potential lawyer and just think “Well, now what happens?” That was a useless consultation at that point.

 

27:05                VERONICA: Yeah. When you have an attorney, though, basically… so my understanding is there’s not much that I need to do because you guys have the legal knowledge. You have the know-how, the wherewithal to get stuff done. So I just show up for a deposition and boom, I’m ready to go.

 

MARK: No, no. Let me jump in on this. I mean, you don’t just go to a deposition. I have a tactic and way of talking to clients that I tell them I want you to ask me the same question over and over until you understand it. I’ve been doing this for 30 years and stuff that I understand instantaneously you may not. And don’t worry about asking me again. I’ll always, at different parts of the case, review. Say, this is what’s happened so far, this is what’s coming up ahead. Your deposition is coming up ahead. We will prepare for that, we’ll bring you in. It’s not something that we just throw you to the piranhas. And so, it’s never like that. So I have this empathetic way about me, maybe to a fault, where I want them to understand because I know what it is when people don’t understand. And that’s a red flag. If a lawyer just wants to talk to you, maybe even down to you, and just doesn’t answer the question again, red flag.

 

28:24                VERONICA: Don’t worry about it, I got it. You don’t need to, don’t worry your pretty little head. Yeah, yeah.

 

MARK: No, no, that’s not the way it should be. “Mark, tell me again about the deposition.” Absolutely, let’s do it again. You’re gonna be asked, you know, and I’ll go through the process until they feel comfortable. They’re never gonna know it as well as me 30 years into it, but they will know it comfortably enough to, you know, do whatever part they need to do in the case as the case proceeds.

 

VERONICA: So I can sit in the chair comfortably with, you know, some sort of lay of the land. I might not understand how the soccer play goes, but I know you’re trying to get the ball in that net, right?

 

MARK: Absolutely right. Absolutely right.

 

VERONICA: That’s probably a terrible way to say it.

 

MARK: I mean, Phillip talked about some clients want to be texted, some clients want to be emailed, some clients… I’m old-school, I want to bring you in as much as possible. I want the face-to-face contact. I want to be able… so you can leave knowing that’s my lawyer, Mark Molina’s on my side.

 

29:12                VERONICA: I’ve covered, you know, just a couple of civil trials, and I’m curious, Phillip, if you could quickly tell me those depositions seem so important, you know, do you hear from clients about…?

 

PHILLIP: Yes. I’ve had a couple of clients who have had prior lawsuits before me. And so, when they get to my case, and we have our deposition (which is when they’re questioned under oath) and they have done this before, they’re always shocked at how much time I spend preparing them for their deposition. I’ll do three or four, maybe five, meetings with them. And they all say that before that, they only had a ten-minute meeting with their lawyer on their last case before deposition, which I think is crazy.

 

VERONICA: That is amazing. And kind of scary when you think about how much is actually on the line. Phillip Hairston and Mark Molina with Montlick Injury Attorneys here on “Lawyers in the House” with Montlick. Coming up, get your pen and paper at the ready, or your notes app, because it’s time for Montlick’s closing argument, five important points coming your way.

30:05                Stay with us.

 

VERONICA: Veronica Waters back with you with Phillip Hariston and Mark Molina

30:12                from Montlick Injury Attorneys. This is “Lawyers in the House” with Montlick on WSB, and you’ve been waiting for it all week, the Montlick closing argument. Gentlemen, the floor is yours.

 

30:24                PHILLIP: So when you’re deciding what counsel to retain for your case, I think there’s five questions you should know to ask that attorney before making that decision. First question is what kind of cases do you usually handle? Like we said earlier, the lawyer you hire should only handle personal injury cases. At Montlick, that’s what we do every day, all day, all the time. There are a lot of cases that are complicated and you want to make sure the person you’re hiring knows what they’re doing and that they only do this kind of work. You don’t want someone who dabbles in personal injury who has a side hustle of criminal or immigration work. You want someone who does this all the time. Second question is what kind of resources does your firm have when handling cases? We didn’t touch on this a lot earlier, but if you’re in a lawsuit and you’re preparing a case for trial, there are costs associated with that, and whether or not the firm you’ve retained can front those costs can make or break your case.

31:22                For example, Mark and I handled a case in February in Fulton County Court. We had to depose our client’s doctor. So we had to question him under oath. It was under videotape, so we had to pay the doctor’s time. We had to pay the stenographer’s time, and the video cameraman’s time; and it was at least $1,000.

 

MARK: It was more than that.

 

31:47                PHILLIP: Thank you, Mark.

 

MARK: More than that.

 

PHILLIP: We were able to play this doctor’s deposition for the jury during the trial and the doctor had all the time in the world to explain how our client was injured and how the mechanics of the car accident hurt their spine; and that really helped the jury understand how the client was hurt and what the case was worth. And I think that was probably the critical evidence we had that allowed us to win that case.

32:12                But without paying for that expense up front, we wouldn’t have had it. So you wanna make sure that the firm you’re hiring has the resources to actually work a case. You might have to hire experts. You might have to do an accident reconstruction. These are all very expensive. The third thing you wanna ask is, what is the plan for my case? You should walk away from your initial consultation knowing what kind of doctor should I be consulting with? What do you need to do for my case to, one, get better quickly, and two, to get the most value out of my case? The fourth question you wanna ask is what is the fee structure of my case? You should know exactly what you’re paying your lawyer and it should be in writing. You should be able to have a written contract in front of you that clearly lays out the terms of your attorney-client relationship. And the fifth and final question you wanna ask is, will I have a way to reach my attorney? You don’t wanna just be able to talk to the paralegal assistant. You wanna be able to reach your attorney. If you call 1-800-LAW-NEED, you will get an initial consultation with an attorney who will handle your case.

 

VERONICA: Phillip Hairston. Mark Molina, the last word goes to you.

 

MARK: Last word is if you hire Montlick, 1-800-LAW-NEED, you will not go wrong. You will have lawyers with competence, you will have a firm with resources, and you will have a team that’s completely committed and empathetic to getting you the recovery you’re entitled.

 

VERONICA: Communication, commitment, a Montlick lawyer will never leave you in the dark. Thank you, Phillip and Mark. Thank you for joining us here on “Lawyers in the House.”

33:41                We will see you next week. I’m Veronica Waters.